Second Rape Reported Near Harvard University In Less Than A Week
CAMBRIDGE (CBS) – For the second time in a week, a woman has reported being raped near Harvard University in Cambridge.
The victim says she was attacked near Kirkland and Oxford Streets on Tuesday night. The suspect is described as a white man, mid-twenties, 5'6" tall, thin build, with dark spiky hair.
The woman who was attacked is not affiliated with Harvard University.
On August 10, another woman said someone attacked her behind Massachusetts Hall. That suspect was described as a tanned, possibly Hispanic male in his mid-twenties.
Harvard University police say they stepped up patrols after the first attack.
In the past, some Harvard women have turned to the Cambridge Oom Yung Doe school, hoping to learn some self defense techniques.
Instructor and 4th degree black belt Benjamin Zaroukian says women are often surprised how well they can defend themselves with relatively little training.
"The key is that you respond with something, and that's the first step of our program: teach the woman to do something," Zaroukian says. "If the woman does something, it has a chance of working. If she does nothing, it has no chance of working."
The Oom Yung Doe school regularly offers self-defense classes for women. Zaroukian explains that attackers are not expecting a fight in these cases, so if the woman involved can react quickly, it can make a big difference.
"It's common for somebody who's targeting a woman to be looking for somebody who's not going to fight back," he says. "They're looking for an easy target."
WBZ-TV's Jim Armstrong contributed to this report.
