A 19-year-old woman allegedly smashed her way into her ex-boyfriend's parents' apartment at a gated Roslindale complex with an aluminum baseball bat, hunted through a bedroom for a safe she believed held cash, and punched one of the residents in the face before fleeing empty-handed, according to prosecutors. Alyssah Harrison now faces home invasion and other felony charges stemming from the July 22 incident at Stony Brook Commons off Washington Street.
Police responded to a call from the property's security office around 1 p.m. that day after someone was reported vandalizing a resident's home near Highcrest Road and Highcrest Terrace, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney's office as reported by Universal Hub. Investigators allege Harrison arrived at the front door of her ex-boyfriend's parents' apartment carrying the bat and, when the male victim stepped out to contact property security, forced her way inside.
Once inside, prosecutors say Harrison ran upstairs into a second-floor bedroom and began opening drawers and a closet, searching for a safe she believed contained money — a theory the victims' son, her ex-boyfriend, reportedly shared with investigators. The female victim followed her upstairs and tried to remove her from the room, and the two struggled. Harrison allegedly pushed the woman, then punched her in the face.
Harrison is accused of holding the bat in a cocked position while threatening both the male and female victims, and of swinging it to smash a glass screen during the confrontation, per the same account. The female victim told investigators she wasn't sure whether Harrison had taken anything, and said she saw nothing in Harrison's hands as she fled the apartment and the complex, which Realtor.com describes as a gated 50-acre residential development adjacent to the Stony Brook Reservation and managed by First Realty Management.
Charges Carry Decades of Potential Prison Time
Harrison was arraigned in West Roxbury Municipal Court on charges of home invasion, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, assault and battery, and malicious destruction of property. Under Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 265, Section 18C, home invasion alone carries a mandatory minimum of 20 years in state prison and up to life imprisonment, according to Massachusetts law cited by Urbelis Law, and requires proof a defendant entered a dwelling while armed or knowing occupants were present and used or threatened force.
The assault and battery with a dangerous weapon charge tied to the aluminum bat is itself a felony punishable by up to 10 years in state prison or 2.5 years in a house of correction, and can be prosecuted under either an intentional-touching or reckless-conduct theory, per Massachusetts statute. The malicious destruction of property charge becomes a felony carrying up to 10 years if the damage exceeds $1,200 — a threshold raised from $250 under the state's Criminal Justice Reform Act, according to Ellison Law LLC.
Judge Orders Release Without Bail
Despite the severity of the charges, West Roxbury Municipal Court Judge Maureen Flaherty released Harrison on personal recognizance, meaning no cash bail was required. Flaherty ordered Harrison to stay away from Highcrest Terrace and Highcrest Road in Roslindale, as well as from the victims and witnesses in the case.
Flaherty was appointed to the bench in October 2021 by then-Governor Charlie Baker after years working as a public defender for the Committee for Public Counsel Services in Roxbury and West Roxbury and as director of inmate legal services at the Suffolk County Sheriff's Office, according to Agency Checklists. She holds a law degree from Suffolk University Law School and represented indigent defendants in Boston courts before joining the bench.
The case is now in the hands of Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden's office, which oversees nearly 160 assistant district attorneys handling more than 20,000 criminal cases annually across Boston, Chelsea, Revere, and Winthrop. Hayden took office in 2022 after Baker appointed him, and later won election to the post.
Local Crime Trends Amid a High-Profile Case
The incident stands out against broader crime trends in the neighborhood. Boston Police Department COMPSTAT data presented in January showed major crime in District E-5, which covers West Roxbury and Roslindale, dropped 33 percent year-over-year, with residential burglaries down 10 percent and aggravated assaults down 41 percent — figures presented by BPD officials and district leadership at a West Roxbury Civic Improvement Association meeting, according to the Boston Bulletin.
Citywide, Boston Police statistical reports through mid-July documented 1,899 Part One violent crimes, including 875 non-domestic aggravated assaults and 528 domestic aggravated assaults. Because the case involves former intimate partners' families, it also falls under the state's mandatory arrest framework for domestic violence incidents, which requires police to make an arrest once probable cause is established for an assault between family, household, or former intimate partners — regardless of whether a victim wants to press charges.
