Increase in assaults and robberies in the Fens

Boston Police have put out a safety advisory to bars, apartments and hotels in the Fenway area to alert residents and visitors about a series of robberies and assaults that have taken place in the area in the last couple of months. Police do not have evidence that the incidents are linked, but one victim was targeted by a group of men who met him at Machine nightclub, traveled with him to the Fens, a popular cruising spot, and then assaulted and robbed him. Two other incidents involved male victims who were assaulted by strangers they met either in or on their way to the Fenway.

"Any time you meet somebody for the first time you really don't know, you place yourself in a vulnerable position," said Sgt. Kevin Power of the District D-4 Community Service Office. "So that's what our advisory was put out there to warn people, there has been an increase in robberies and people have to be vigilant of their surroundings, and people have been targeted meeting in bars."

The first incident took place April 17. According to the incident report the 26-year-old victim met up with two men, a 41-year-old white Milton resident named Brian McFadden who was eventually apprehended by police and a second white male, at an unknown bar and agreed to go with the men to the Fenway area. On the way there the victim became nervous about the intentions of his companions and ducked into the Howard Johnson Hotel on Boylston Street to call the police. McFadden and his accomplice followed him, and as the police arrived they witnessed McFadden punch the victim in the face inside the hotel. The report says that McFadden and the other assailant were "very agitated" that the victim was unwilling to pay for a hotel room, and after the victim called the police the second assailant fled the scene. McFadden was arrested and charged with assault and battery, but police were unable to find the second suspect, who was described by the victim as a bald white non-Hispanic male wearing a grey sweatshirt. The victim had a minor injury above his eye, but declined medical attention.

About a week later, on April 23, another victim, a 45-year-old man, met three men at Machine and agreed to go with them to the Fens. After they arrived the men began punching the victim in the face, and they stole his wallet, which contained about $50 cash, and his cell phone, and they fled toward Massachusetts Avenue. The incident report contains few details about the assailants, other than that one was white and the other two were black. The victim had facial injuries that were treated at Beth Israel DeaconessMedical Center. Police were unable to find the suspects after searching the area.

The third incident took place May 10. The victim, a 47-year-old man, met up with a stranger and agreed to go with him into the Fenway. When they reached the park the stranger, a white man with red hair who the victim said was about 5' 8" and 160 pounds, pulled out a knife, stole $250 from the victim and ran away towards Brookline Avenue. Police were unable to apprehend the suspect, but they recovered a silver key with a a Subaru logo inscribed on it that the victim told police fell out of the attacker's pocket.

Power said all three crimes are under investigation by the Boston Police. He said there are periodic increases in robberies around the Fenway area, but he said it is unclear whether these latest crimes are connected or whether the increase in robberies and assaults is a coincidence. He said police have reached out to bar owners in the neighborhood and posted advisories in bars and in the lobbies of local apartments.

Power urged people in the Fenway who are either victims of assault or who are threatened to call the police on one of the four emergency phones installed in the park.