A little more than a week after a woman was savagely beaten and stabbed near the Longwood ‘T’ stop about a mile and half from the Charles River Campus Boston University Police say BU students are in no unusual danger.
But while local police officials say the attack may not be an isolated incident, the BUPD is warning BU students to ‘be on the defensive.’
‘We try to hammer home the message on a weekly basis that you’re in an urban environment,’ said BUPD spokesman Sgt. Jack St. Hilaire, referring to the weekly crime briefings BUPD community officers hold for Residence Hall Associations and Residence Assistants.
‘We do it on a continuing basis because these things happen on a daily basis in the city,’ he said.
According to St. Hilaire, BU students are in no more or less danger in the wake of this most recent attack, which left a 48-year-old woman pummeled, stabbed and suffering from hypothermia on the banks of the Muddy River just before dawn on Feb. 7.
BUPD officers have been briefed about the latest attacks, but the department is not focusing an undue amount attention on the assault, he said.
‘Although it didn’t happen with in our jurisdiction, we get concerned because the students use the ‘T’ and they can get victimized like other people in the city,’ he said.
‘The worst thing to do is keep the students in the dark. We take the opportunity to repeat our crime prevention techniques, which are basically common sense,’ he said.
St. Hilaire urged BU students to be vigilant of their environment at all times, travel in pairs and be sure to leave their itinerary with someone when they go out, ‘in case you don’t get there.’
‘It’s a crime of opportunity,’ he said. ‘[The attacker] identifies someone who is by themselves … Obviously he’s not going to walk up to you if you’re in broad daylight standing in front of T. Anthony’s.’
Hilaire urged students to use the ‘T’ during high-traffic times, trust their instincts and be ‘on the defensive.’
‘The way people get victimized is they’re not paying attention to their surroundings,’ he said.
However, Brookline Police say they are almost certain that this most recent attack is related to a similar beating at the Longwood station last December.
In that assault, a woman in her early 50s was grabbed at about 6 a.m. as she exited a train, beaten across the head with a flashlight and sexually assaulted, according to Brookline Police and news reports.
‘They were definitely related,’ said Capt. Peter Scott of the Brookline Police. ‘I would say we’re 99 percent sure it was the same guy.’
In both cases, the victims were middle-aged women on their way to work early in the morning, but Scott encouraged college students to remain on guard, stay in well-lit areas and use the buddy system.
Sgt. Hilaire also said the most recent attacks are similar to a spree of robberies and sexual assaults committed in Brighton, Newton and Brookline last August.
‘What is similar to the Brighton guy is that it looks as though sexual assault and robbery are the motive,’ he said.
Hilaire said the BUPD had taken a renewed interest in last summer’s unsolved attacks since the two most recent assaults. He described the Brighton assailant as ‘still at large and still active.’
Since both of the most recent attacks occurred near the path along the Muddy River, Capt. Scott specifically cautioned those who run along the path early in the morning while wearing headphones.
‘How much can you be aware of your surroundings if you’re wearing headphones?’
Sgt. Francis Mulhern of the MBTA Police said student should not be concerned about riding the ‘T,’ stressing that the attack happened off MBTA property.
‘A situation like that could happen any time to any person not just walking away from an MBTA stop,’ Mulhern said. ‘It’s not something that happens every day.’