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Crime

“The attacks against these two women were utterly unprovoked and are an intolerable local manifestation of a disturbing trend we’re witnessing across the nation.”

A Cambridge man accused of randomly attacking two Asian American women in April will appear in court next week for a pre-trial hearing, according to Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden’s office.

Alexandr Ivanenko, 53, is facing charges of assault and battery on a person over 60 causing injury, assault and battery, two counts of assault and battery to intimidate, and two counts of a civil rights violation with injury.

The charges stem from two incidents, which took place just a couple of hours apart in Chinatown and Downtown Crossing on April 2, 2022, the district attorney’s office said in a release.

Shortly after 1 p.m. that day, Ivanenko allegedly approached his first victim, an elderly Asian American woman who was walking near Marginal Street in Chinatown. The victim told police that a man — unknown and unprovoked — punched her and fled the scene, Hayden’s office noted.

Later in the day, just before 3:30 p.m., another Asian American woman reported that a man punched her and fled the scene, officials said.

Both victims provided descriptions of their attacker to police. After reviewing surveillance video from the two incidents, police determined that the perpetrator in both assaults was the same man — later identifying Ivanenko as the suspect.

Police secured warrants to arrest Ivanenko, but he was already in custody for an unrelated offense.

In June, Ivanenko was arrested for an unprovoked attack on a 67-year-old woman at Alewife Station in Cambridge. In this incident, police said he “suddenly and without provocation reached out and grabbed the woman by her neck and threw her to the ground.”

Ivanenko was arraigned for the two April incidents last month and ordered held “in lieu of $5,000 bail,” according to the statement from Hayden’s office. He was also ordered to stay away from both the victims and the locations of the attacks.

Hayden condemned the acts of violence and said that crimes against Asian Americans have been on the rise across the U.S. in recent years, even pointing to a report that such crimes spiked 339% in 2021.

“The attacks against these two women were utterly unprovoked and are an intolerable local manifestation of a disturbing trend we’re witnessing across the nation,” the district attorney said. “These incidents provide a stark example of the way careless and inflammatory national rhetoric can lead to dangerous local repercussions.”

Ivananko is due in Boston Municipal Court on Jan. 26.



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