The violence that occurred in Allston on Saturday night is alarming,yet unsurprising in a city as large as Boston, students said.
The stabbings, which took place early Sunday morning at the intersectionof Brighton and Harvard Avenues, left one man, Richard Bevens, 23, of Roxbury, dead and four otherswounded, The Daily Free Press reported on Monday.
College of Arts and Sciences senior Sarah Stark, an Allston resident,witnessed the aftermath of the stabbings at about 2:30 a.m. as shepassed by the scene in a taxi. Stark said she saw police officers, squadcars and bystanders on both corners of the street.
Stark said she did not find out what exactly happened until the next day.
“I actually made a tweet about it to see if anybody knew,” she said.”I thought somebody had been shot.”
Stark said she thinks the stabbings are certainly scary, but not unexpected.
“It’s not that surprising in Allston,” she said.CAS junior Arturo Escajeda said he also saw police cars and ambulances aroundthe scene of the incident Saturday night.
“I was kind of shocked,” he said. “It’s a fairly rare occurrence.”
Despite his initial surprise about the weekend stabbings, Escajeda said hedoesn’t think the violence in Allston affects the BU community thatmuch. He said he thinks most students are isolated from violentcrimes.
“It was bound to happen in a city this big,” he said.
On the other hand, College of Communication senior Veronica Byrnes, who lives near the intersection in question, said she thinks the stabbings in Allstonare something students need to take especially seriously.
“It does make me nervous,” she said. “It’s disconcerting becausethat’s happened once before.”
The intersection where the stabbing occurred was also the scene for the deadly November stabbing of BU Dining Services employee Gregory Phillips.
Byrnes said she doesn’t think such violent incidents like the Allstonstabbings can be averted.
“I feel like doing more might not prevent those types of isolatedincidents from happening,” she said. “Those kinds of things happenwhen you get a bunch of drunk people together.”
Byrnes said she feels that information about violence in Allstonshould be more readily available to BU students who live there.
“I didn’t really know that that type of violence was prone to theAllston area when I moved there,” she said. “I feel like it can’t everbe a bad thing to have people more informed.”
School of Hospitality Administration senior Dana Friedman, a resident of the Student Village, said she wouldn’twant to live in Allston because of the possible dangers.
“I do spend a lot of time down there,” she said. “But I would never,ever walk around there by myself.”
CAS senior Becca Task, who said she passed by the scene shortly after the stabbings and stumbled on one of the victim’s jackets stained in blood, agreed.
“If you walk alone at night in Allston you should definitely be prepared to be harassed or accosted,” she said.
CAS junior Jeremy Darling said he thinks that fights are bound to happen in Allston, andthat the best way for students to be prepared is to be consciousof the dangers.
“It’s more of an individual responsibility to keep yourself safe,” he said.
Task, however, said a lack of police presence in the area is also influential on the crime rate in the area.
“Boston Police says the bars need to be better about the end of nights, but that should be the police’s job, not the bars,” she said. “I’ve never seen an officer walking down the streets of Allston late at night.”