By Flint McColgan
Boston Herald
BOSTON — A bizarre incident at ritzy Rowes Wharf downtown, in which cops say a man was shooting off flares from a cargo container on the water, sent one Boston police officer to the hospital with a hypodermic needle injury.
“No, why don’t you come up here,” the suspect allegedly shouted down at cops as they tried to coax him off the cargo container floating on a dock Saturday night, according to the police report. “I’ve been doing dope all day. … This is my boat.”
Police responded to the fiery scene on the wharf, documented in hues of yellow and red from security camera footage, when employees of the Boston Harbor hotel downtown called in reports of vandalism shortly after 8 p.m.
Officers approached the deck, where an employee pointed out “a long white streak on the dock, that officers believed to be from an incendiary device,” according to the police report. They then looked up and saw a man “jumping up and down on top of a large shipping container on top of a floating dock.”
That’s when they asked him to come down and he allegedly responded that he wouldn’t and began throwing objects from a backpack — including hypodermic needles — into the water and at the officers. He then began stabbing what appeared to be one of the needles into his arm, according to the police report, prompting officers to climb up and attempt to stop him.
The man allegedly fought with the officers, during which an officer “felt a sharp pain in his knee to which he believed was caused from one of the uncapped hypodermic needs that were strewn about,” the police report states.
That officer was treated and released the same night, according to Boston Police spokesman Sgt. Det. John Boyle, and is expected to return to duty soon.
The suspect, a 35-year-old South Boston man the police have not released the name of, was arrested and is scheduled to appear in Boston Municipal Court to face charges of vandalism, trespassing, disturbing the peace and two counts of assault and battery on a police officer.
©2022 MediaNews Group, Inc.
Visit at bostonherald.com.
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.