BU Police Issue Sketch of Day-Care Suspect

Likeness sent to area police, child-care centers

July 10, 2008
14
Twitter Facebook
A police rendering of the suspect. Courtesy of BUPD

Boston University Police have released a sketch of the person who allegedly approached and spoke to a small child at the Boston University Children’s Center on Agganis Way late Tuesday afternoon.

The suspect, a white male about 5 feet, 10 inches tall, with an average build and a high voice, was dressed in khaki shorts, a gray T-shirt, and a white baseball cap worn backwards. He reportedly stopped by the bicycle area of the Children’s Center, which is adjacent to BUPD headquarters, and spoke to a young child in the center’s care. He left the area when a day-care staffer advised him that he would have to check in before he could make contact with a child. The sketch, based on observations of a day-care worker who witnessed the incident, has been sent to local police departments, the Massachusetts State Police, and area day-care centers.

Scott Pare, deputy director of public safety for the University, says the BU Police and other departments are doing everything they can to locate the suspect. “We are reviewing all past reports of field observations,” says Pare. “We are studying videotapes. We have a description, and we are investigating every lead we have.”

The University asks anyone with information about the incident to call the BU Police at 617-353-2110.

Art Jahnke can be reached at jahnke@bu.edu.

Explore Related Topics:

  • Share this story
  • 14 Comments Add

Share

BU Police Issue Sketch of Day-Care Suspect

Share

  • Art Jahnke

    Senior Contributing Editor

    Art Janke

    Art Jahnke began his career at the Real Paper, a Boston area alternative weekly. He has worked as a writer and editor at Boston Magazine, web editorial director at CXO Media, and executive editor in Marketing & Communications at Boston University, where his work was honored with many awards. Profile

Comments & Discussion

Boston University moderates comments to facilitate an informed, substantive, civil conversation. Abusive, profane, self-promotional, misleading, incoherent or off-topic comments will be rejected. Moderators are staffed during regular business hours (EST) and can only accept comments written in English. Statistics or facts must include a citation or a link to the citation.

There are 14 comments on BU Police Issue Sketch of Day-Care Suspect

  3. But in this day and age, I think it’s best if they investigate it. I’m curious about why an adult would want to approach a child in a day-care.

    Reply
    Link

  6. I guess the two people who posted their comments have no kids and don’t understand how scary this incident is. Yes, he did something. He spoke to a kid he doesn’t know at a daycare center – what was he doing there anyway and really what does an adult have to say to a kid just out of the blue! They need to find him and they need to investigate his past, etc…we need to be proactive and not reactive. These are our children and we definitely care and so should you.

    Reply
    Link

  8. Having an individual actually “DO” something is precisely what the police are trying to prevent. People would be singing a much different tune if this individual HAD taken a child from the center. The quick thinking staff member did precisely the right thing in this situation.
    If this person could be found, interviewed and his record checked, the police might prevent something terrible from happening. This type of person typically will try and do the same thing again; maybe here, maybe somewhere else.
    The effort is to prevent a tragedy BEFORE it happens. Sigh…

    Reply
    Link

  9. O.K., so I have kids, and one of them at the age of six had a very unfortunate incident with an unknown adult. However, I hope there won’t be an overreaction to this incident. Daycare personnel do need to be watchful over the children in their charge, and the police do need to investigate. But if they find this guy, and his intentions were innocent, I hope he doesn’t end up with a CORI. In case anyone is not familiar with CORI, it is a permanent record of everyone who is ever charged with a crime, even if the charges are dropped! It can interfere with getting a job or housing. And it doesn’t go away.

    It is indeed a sad world. There are some people who just like talking with kids because they’re delightful. But you can’t do that any more.

    Reply
    Link

  10. OK sure, the daycare worker definitely acted appropriately when s/he approached the subject. The guy then acted appropriately by leaving. I’ll even concede that it would have been prudent to alert the other daycare workers, and possibly other daycares in the area.

    But sending this guy’s picture out to the entire BU community when he committed NO crime? That’s appalling. From the description, it sounds like it could have been just about any male BU student who happened by the area and was too young to know that now he’s an adult, he’s not allowed to talk to kids. I’d tell him to come forward and end this madness, but given this state’s appalling history of overreacting to daycare related charges, I’d advise this guy to lay low.

    And to the person who asked who would speak to a kid they don’t know out of the blue– I do that all the time. Kids are awesome and if there’s one nearby, I will usually say something. But I’m female, so I guess that’s ok?

    Reply
    Link

  11. Regardless of whether you *feel* a child was put in danger or not, the simple fact of the matter is that this man committed no crime. Why “investigate the past” of a man who is not accused of any crime?

    You know what it is when the police hunt a man that they know did nothing legally wrong?

    Scary.

    Reply
    Link

  13. Isn’t this persecution for alleged thought crimes ? Does not this sound like Maoism? The tragedy is what IS happening – public defamation of someone who did nothing wrong or even rationally potentially construed as sinister. As anyone could by happenstance come into contact with the children there this hyperbolic reaction has an hysterical element in it. I would think there is far more concern if “the suspect” spoke with a female student for who knows what his intentions were! so we should all resort to isolationism in public places in regards to anyone lest we be suspected of evil intentions? Where’s the grimacing portrait of the Chairman on Commonwealth Avenue? Huge signs should be posted proclaiming on Agganis Way “DO NOT TALK WITH ANYONE EVIDENTLY UNDER YOUR AGE PENALTY BE PUT IN PUBLIC [CYBER] STOCKS”

    Reply
    Link

  14. there is a fenced-in (chain link), but open air and highly visible play area where this likely happened. it is next to a commonly used path, and there is no reason why somebody shouldn’t have been passing by. kids can be highly talkative when at play. maybe the child started it, “what’s your name? i’m four! tigers are cool!” and then the “perp” made the mistake of responding, treating a child like they actually exist. this paranoia and hyper-response smacks of the ridiculous “aqua teen hunger force” debacle a few years back.

    Reply
    Link

Post a comment.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Latest from BU Today