Police in Cambridge are searching for a man who sucker-punched random people on the street Saturday afternoon.
Credit: Nicolaus Czarnecki/Metro
Police in Cambridge are looking for a man who sucker punched two strangers as they walked along Massachusetts Avenue over the weekend.[videoembed id=373950]
A furniture store’s surveillance camera captured video of the man throwing the punch Saturday afternoon as a couple who just left the store began walking down the sidewalk. The video shows a man coming up from behind the couple, winding up and hitting a man in the side of his head, knocking him to the ground. A store employee runs out of the store and helps the man.
Anthony Goodh, owner of BoCocept, which captured one of the attacks, said he was glad his store’s camera caught the attacker and hopes police can catch him. He called the attack “cowardly.”
“It’s terrible. You get paranoid and start looking over your shoulder to see who is coming from behind,” Goodh said. “I hope they identify this person. If he can’t decide for himself that he’s doing something wrong, he’s got to be told so.”
Cambridge police said that two other men were also punched by the same suspect as they walked along Massachusetts Avenue at about the same time Saturday afternoon.
While the video and attack seem similar to a phenomenon known as the knockout game where people sucker punch unsuspecting pedestrians for an audience or to post a video online, Cambridge police said they do not believe these attacks are a part of that game.
A Cambridge police spokesman said the situation appears to instead be a case of a person who was either under the influence or suffering from some time of mental illness.
No arrests have been made as of Monday morning. Police are investigating.
Anyone with information about the incident is asked to contact the Cambridge Police Department at617-349-3300.
Follow Michael Naughton on Twitter @metrobosmike.
