A 25-year-old man is facing a lengthy list of charges after police say he spent Wednesday afternoon targeting women across Winthrop, pulling at one woman's pants, slapping another's buttocks near a bus stop, and climbing into a stranger's apartment before officers tracked him down and used a Taser to take him into custody.
According to NBC10 Boston, the string of incidents began to surface after a woman walked into the Winthrop Police Department with her child just after 4 p.m. to report that a man had tried to pull down her pants outside the Wadsworth building on Winthrop Street while making sexually explicit comments. Police broadcast a description of the suspect as a 25-year-old Black man wearing a red jacket and blue jeans, according to Boston 25 News, which officers used to search the area for him.
A String of Encounters Across Town
Once investigators began piecing together the afternoon, several more alleged victims came forward with similar accounts, per the station's report. One woman told police a man matching the same description ran past her and slapped her buttocks while she was waiting for a bus. Another incident took a more alarming turn: two women returned to their apartment on Jefferson Street to find the man sitting on their couch with his pants unbuckled, calling one of them over to him, the outlet reports.
The women fled the apartment, and building maintenance staff physically removed the man before police were contacted, according to the same account. That break-in reportedly happened before the street-level encounters on Winthrop Street, establishing the suspect's path through the compact seaside town over the course of the afternoon.
Taser Deployed After Brief Chase
Officers eventually located a man fitting the description nearby. He fled on foot, and after a brief chase, resisted arrest, prompting police to deploy a Taser to subdue him, the station notes. The confrontation left three police officers with minor injuries; one of those officers and the suspect were both taken to an area hospital for evaluation.
Winthrop police said they expect to charge the man with two counts of indecent assault and battery, disorderly conduct, child endangerment, breaking and entering, and resisting arrest. Authorities said surveillance video helped corroborate the various victims' accounts of what happened that afternoon.
What the Suspect Could Face in Court
The charges carry significant weight under Massachusetts law. Indecent assault and battery on a person 14 or older is punishable by up to five years in state prison or two and a half years in a house of correction, with mandatory sex offender registration upon conviction, according to the Law Office of Matthew Peterson. The child endangerment count, tied to the fact that a child was present when the initial report was made, carries up to two and a half years in a house of correction for recklessly creating a substantial risk of harm to a minor, per Mass.gov.
Breaking into the Jefferson Street apartment during the daytime adds further exposure: daytime breaking and entering with intent to commit a felony can bring up to 10 years in state prison or two and a half years in a house of correction, according to attorney Connie Tran. Arraignment and other court proceedings stemming from Winthrop Police Department arrests are handled by the East Boston Municipal Court in Suffolk County, which holds jurisdiction over criminal matters for both communities.
A Rare Spree for a Small Peninsula Town
Winthrop is a tightly packed, ocean-side peninsula community of just under 2 square miles with a population of more than 19,000, bordered by Revere and East Boston and surrounded by water on three sides, according to information on the town compiled by Wikipedia. The Winthrop Police Department, led by Chief John Goodwin and based out of 1 Metcalf Square inside Town Hall, oversees public safety for the entire community.
Local crime-tracking data shows that while property crimes like burglaries and vehicle break-ins happen periodically around Winthrop, violent personal crimes and public sexual misconduct incidents are relatively rare, according to Door Profit's crime mapping. A multi-victim spree spanning an apartment break-in and several street-level assaults in the span of an afternoon marks a significant departure from the town's typical crime patterns.
The suspect's name and bail status had not been released as of the initial reporting, and it remains unclear whether additional victims may come forward as investigators continue reviewing surveillance footage from the area.
