Two men linked to bike path assault and armed robbery in same night

By Jack Nicas

Police are searching for two men who allegedly attacked a Somerville man on the community bike path Thursday evening. According to police, the victim ignored the men’s insults and requests for money until being struck in the head from behind. The victim then ran until he was caught behind Rite-Aid pharmacy and assaulted again, damaging his glasses, police said.

Eventually the victim broke free and fled to the Davis Square T station where his girlfriend was waiting. The two took shelter there and called the police, while the suspects allegedly hovered outside taunting the victim, police said.

Police Sergeant Gerald Reardon said arrests could not be immediately made on a simple assault, but Detective David Lyons did detain two suspects at the scene, Matthew Galvin and Steven O’Brien, and requested a warrant for their arrest.

The victim posted a narrative of the incident Friday morning on the community message board Davis Square LiveJournal. Over 100 comments poured in over the course of the day, linking the alleged assailants with a gang of teenagers known to loiter in the Davis Square Plaza and other criminal activity occurring Thursday night.

An armed robbery on Winslow Avenue reported 51 minutes earlier bears striking similarities to the assault, particularly in the proximity of the two events in location and time and the descriptions of the alleged assailants. According to police, the victim of the armed robbery was approached by three individuals, one on bike, and asked for a dollar. The victim said he did not have any money and walked away until surrounded again by the three individuals, police said.

The two men on foot match the descriptions of Galvin and O’Brien in police reports and the assault victim’s LiveJournal post. Police reported Galvin is a 5-foot-10-inch white male who was wearing plaid shorts and a white shirt and O’Brien is a white male wearing a green Celtics shirt. The assault victim corroborated that O’Brien was a shorter, heavier white male wearing a green Celtics shirt. According to police reports, the two on-foot suspects in the armed robbery were ‚Äúa white male, approximately [5 feet 10 inches] in height, having a thin build and wearing shorts‚Ķ [and] a white male wearing a green shirt, having black hair, approximately [5 feet 9 inches] in height and having a heavy set build.‚Äù

According to police, the on-foot suspect matching the description of Galvin ‚Äúwrapped his arms around the victim’s neck, brought him to the ground and began punching him in the head.‚Äù The suspect matching the description of O’Brien then ‚Äúbegan rummaging through the victim’s pockets and took an Apple iPhone.‚Äù During the robbery, the suspects were quoted as saying ‚ÄúYou want to get stabbed‚Äù and ‚ÄúYou want to get shot,‚Äù police said.

In the assault victim’s LiveJournal post, he wrote that the responding officer to his assault ‚Äúsaid about 20 minutes before I was harassed, there was another attack by what appeared to be the same group of thugs further down the path towards Minuteman where a person was told ‘would you rather be stabbed or shot?’ They stole his iPhone.‚Äù

Officer Maryann Manfra later arrested the third suspect on bike after matching him to a photograph the victim was able to provide to the police from the “MySpace” website. The armed robbery victim, who is a minor, told police he recognized the suspect on bike, who is also a minor, as a friend of his Somerville High School classmates and “an individual who he frequently saw hanging out in Davis Square,” police said.

Three other possibly linked incidents in the Davis Square area were called into police Thursday between the hours of 7:40 and 9:50 p.m. Officers responded to a large group drinking and harassing people on the bike path at 7:40 p.m., 20 minutes after the armed robbery and a half-hour prior to the assault. There were also two fights reported on Chester Street outside of Redbones at 9:08 and 9:49 p.m. A comment to the assault victim’s LiveJournal post stated a white male in a Celtics shirt was involved in a fight outside of Redbones.

Somerville Police Crime Analyst Frank Bates said he doesn’t see any connection with the crimes or any larger trend in Davis Square crime. ‚ÄúFor a trend or pattern to occur, it has to be more than three cases to pop up in a short period of time,‚Äù he said.

The assault victim expanded upon the assault in his LiveJournal post; he wrote that after describing his attackers to police, the officers departed to investigate the bike path. He wrote he and his girlfriend then went across the street to Tedeschi’s, where they reportedly saw the assailants again. The victim wrote he hid in the back of the store as Galvin came in and had a long chat with the store’s clerk. The victim alleged Galvin then slid a ‚Äúwad of cash‚Äù across the counter to the clerk.

Police then appeared again and were able to detain Galvin, the victim wrote. However, the store clerk reportedly denied knowing the group of teenagers.

The victim said in an email that he was unwilling to discuss the incident until he knew if or when the suspects would be prosecuted. He said he had been in touch with the police, “and it appears they are building a case against these guys.”

Somerville resident Delilah Webb said she was in the community garden on the bike path Thursday evening and believes she observed the same group causing problems. She said a male matching the description of Galvin was initiating fights with friends and taking their bikes; when an elderly woman Webb was with asked the boys to watch their language, Webb said Galvin, who was clearly intoxicated, “started yelling right back.”

Detective Lyons’ request for a warrant was approved by the Somerville District Court on Monday and it charges Galvin and O’Brien with attempting to commit a crime. Reardon said there is an active investigation to find the two suspects.