Kids gone wild in city
Toss bottles, face charges; ‘It was just scary’
A group of juveniles were arrested Sunday night after allegedly throwing bottles at and assaulting at least five adults downtown, BPD reported.
Around 7:50 p.m. Sunday night, BPD officers responded to a report of 10 to 12 kids “causing a disturbance and throwing bottles at people” around Franklin Street and Washington Street, according to BPD.
Officers arrived to see the group heading down Franklin Street and caught up with several of the juveniles around Hawley Street. All the kids were “uncooperative” with the officers, the arrest report states, “refusing to identify themselves and providing wrong information.”
Five injured adults were around the scene when police arrived, the arrest report documents, reporting assaults including being kicked on the ground, punched in the back of the head and hit in the jaw by a projectile. The battered group showed injuries from black eyes to busted eardrums, though all refused medical assistance.
“It was just scary,” one victim stated, according to the arrest report.
Of the group, who’d reportedly been kicked out of the nearby TJ Maxx earlier in the night, three were arrested based on witness accounts and security camera footage showing the alleged assaults.
Another suspect told officers he was 14 years old and later released into his mother’s custody after she informed police he was 11. Under Massachusetts law, children under 12 cannot be charged with a crime.
A 12-year-old male from Arlington, 16-year-old male from Framingham and 14-year-old male from Cambridge were charged with delinquency, assault with a dangerous weapon — referencing a shod foot — and affray.
Six chocolate and caramel eggs were confiscated during booking.
Four girls with the group will be summonsed to Boston Juvenile Court upon further investigation, police stated. Four more kids between 15 and 17 years old involved in the incident are “unable to be summonsed due to lack of valid information,” according to the arrest report.
Juvenile violence around the Downtown Crossing area has swelled in recent years, with reports of kids assaulting pedestrians just to “mess with people” and a number of racially motivated attacks.