Police: Woman Punched in Face During Robbery on the Common

The following is a press release from the Boston Police Department:

[Monday] afternoon around 3:26PM, officers from District A-1 (Downtown Boston) responded to the Boston Common for a robbery in progress.

On arrival, officers met and spoke to the victim who had some injuries to her face. She reported that she was sitting on a bench in the park and had just handed some money to a friend.  As her friend left the area, three women suspects walked up to her and attempted to grab her purse. The victim reported that she resisted the suspects’ attack at which point the suspects assaulted her by punching and kicking her. They then fled the area running towards Beacon Street.

Officers received description of the three suspects and broadcast those descriptions to other units. While still on scene, officers spoke to several other witnesses who reported the same description as the victim. They also provided further descriptions of the suspects and their direction of flight. A short while later, officers were informed that a State Police officer had two individuals matching the suspects’ descriptions at the corner of Bowdoin and Beacon Streets.   There, officers spoke to a trooper who reported that he was patrolling the area when he was hailed by passersby who yelled to them that the two stopped individuals were the suspects. While officers were speaking to the trooper, two other witnesses walked up to them and identified the two stopped suspects as the ones who assaulted and attempted to rob the victim.

The suspects, Omaila Medina, 19 of Fall River and Jasmin Vega, 27 of Dorchester were both arrested and charged with Assault and Battery by Means of a Dangerous Weapon (shod foot), Assault and Battery, and Attempted Unarmed Robbery.