Boston police warned the public to avoid a stretch of Albany Street in the South End Tuesday morning due to law enforcement activity.
Police provided the advisory at 10:29 a.m.
“Avoid the area of Albany Street between East Berkeley Street and Malden Street due to police activity,” police tweeted. A spokesman said the area to avoid also runs up to Union Park.
Dozens of police and EMS vehicles lined Albany Street late Tuesday morning near a residential section of the South End, shutting down traffic between East Berkeley and Randolph streets and snarling traffic coming off Interstate 93.
A SWAT vehicle could be seen parked near the intersection of Albany and Thayer streets.
Officers with rifles rushed toward the area between Paul Sullivan Way and Randolph Street, which includes several parking lots and a turf field.
Residents of an apartment building at 460 Harrison Ave. were forced to evacuate and stood in a crowd in a small courtyard. Harrison Avenue runs parallel to Albany Street.
Multiple workers at office buildings on Harrison said police were in a standoff with an armed gunman on Emerson College’s Rotch Field.
Police were deferring official comment due to the sensitivity of the ongoing situation, officials said.
The workers say they watched through second- and third-floor windows as a man ran onto the middle of the turf field on Randolph Street around 9:30 a.m. and started waving a handgun. A lone man was on the field playing lacrosse and sprinted away when he noticed the gunman, leaving his bags behind, the workers said.
“This kid was playing and didn’t notice [the gunman] for a good minute,” said Renee Coyne, who works in the building at 500 Harrison Ave. “When he turned around and saw this guy, he just took off and left all of his things behind.”
Police responded quickly, the workers said, descending on the field as the man began threatening to fire his weapon.
She and her coworkers watched the beginnings of the standoff for about 30 minutes before they were ushered out of their office building by police.
They gathered for hours behind police tape at the intersection of Harrison and Randolph waiting to return to work. The sound of a negotiator speaking through a megaphone echoed through the streets.
The workers identified the field as Emerson’s Rotch Field, where several of the school’s athletic teams play.
Emerson sent two alerts to students Wednesday morning, warning them to stay away from the field.
“Armed Person with unknown intent is reported at Rotch Field Boston campus,” one alert read.
“Emerson Alert: UPDATE. BPD is off at Rotch Field Police Activity is anticipated in the area for extended period,” Emerson tweeted at 11:08 a.m. “All Community members should avoid the area until advised otherwise Further Updates, & when community members may return to the area will be shared when appropriate.”
Tim, a resident of the South End who asked to only be identified by his first name, said he was walking to his car on Randolph Street about 10 yards behind a man wearing a baseball cap when a police cruiser pulled over.
Two officers jumped out of the cruiser and the man quickly ducked onto a side street. That’s when officers drew their guns. As Tim turned left onto another street, he said the gunman came onto the sidewalk behind him with police following closely.
“I heard the police shouting at him from behind me to drop the gun,” Tim said. “He was saying something like, ‘You’ll have to kill me.’ I took a quick glance behind me and just took off running and jumped in my car.”
Tim said he drove off through a swarm of police cars.
A woman who identified herself as the gunman’s sister said she’d been called to the scene to calm her brother down but hadn’t yet been able to speak with him. She cut an interview short when a police officer asked to speak with her.
Cruisers and crime scene tape sealed off two blocks of Harrison Ave. to keep passersby away from the field.
Video captured by Anthony Ferguson, who just started work at a Harrison Avenue office building Wednesday morning, shows the gunman pacing on Rotch Field in the first moments of the standoff. He points his weapon to the sky, then toward the ground, then back to the sky.
Ferguson said an officer told him around 1:30 p.m. that the gunman is “not backing down.”
This is a breaking news story and will be updated when more information becomes available.
Travis Andersen can be reached at travis.andersen@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @TAGlobe. Andrew Brinker can be reached at andrew.brinker@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter at @andrewnbrinker.
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October 19, 2021 at 06:08PM
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Boston police activity prompts traffic advisory in South End on Albany Street - The Boston Globe
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