Cambridge Police Investigating Shootings Near Central Square

The Cambridge Police Department is investigating two shootings that occurred roughly three blocks from the Central Square MBTA Station Tuesday morning and prompted the brief closure of a Harvard-affiliated day care center.

CPD responded to reports of gunshots around 10:46 a.m. near the intersection of River and Auburn Streets, according to a press release. The victims, two men, sustained nonfatal injuries and were provided treatment at local hospitals. One was wounded in the knee and the other sustained a gunshot to the hand.

Currently, the police believe that the incident was targeted and that there is “no threat to the public’s safety,” according to the press release. The targeted nature of the attack has led the department to believe that the shootings are unrelated to a pair of stabbings in Harvard Square that occurred over Labor Day weekend.

Several Cambridge police officers gather in 2014. By Tiana A Abdulmassih

“I think this morning’s incident, the victims were targeted, meaning there was a prior relationship, but once again it’s so early on in the investigation that anything is conjecture and speculation,’’ CPD commissioner Branville G. Bard, Jr. said in a press conference shortly after the attack. “It’s very unlikely that they’re related incidents.”

Certain Cambridge schools, including the Harvard-affiliated Radcliffe Child Care Center at 10 DeWolfe Street, were put on lockdown status Tuesday morning after the shootings, CPD spokesperson Jeremy Warnick wrote in an email. The schools were cleared shortly after the lockdown was put in place.

“The children’s daily routines have not been disrupted. All have enjoyed their lunches and are settling in for their naps,” the director of the center wrote in an email to parents.

Streets in the vicinity of the shooting were also closed briefly, according to the press release, and police have since seized a red automobile that was seen fleeing the scene of the attack. Reports also indicated a man on a white bicycle was seen leaving the scene.

CPD also reported Tuesday afternoon that a man was non-fatally stabbed in Central Square, blocks from where the shooting had occurred that morning. CPD arrested a suspect in connection with the stabbing later that afternoon.

—Staff writer Michael E. Xie can be reached at michael.xie@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @MichaelEXie1.