“Make your house harder to get into than the one next door. If a criminal can’t get in easily he’s likely to move on.”

That advice from Cambridge Police Commissioner Robert C. Haas was at the heart of a presentation by Cambridge police officials concerning the bloody stabbing and assault on August 26 at 220 Pearl Street. The meeting took place at the Morse School on Thursday, October 14. Some two dozen people attended.

Victims in the case were a 53-year-old Harvard researcher and his 11-year-old son. On October 7 police announced that Marcos Colono, 32, of Cambridge had been arrested and charged with home invasion, assault with intent to murder, and rape.

The police team at the Morse School meeting was led by Commissioner Haas and Deputy Supt. Paul Ames. Others representing the CPD included Supt. Christopher J. Burke;  Deputy Supt. Christine Elow, a Cambridgeport native who was On-Call Duty Chief at the time of the attack;  Lieut. Steven Donahue, who has been in charge of the investigation;  Sgt. Rob Lowe, newly named Neighborhood Sergeant for Cambridgeport;  and Dan Riviello, public information specialist and department spokesman.

Questions from the floor during the meeting included:

Q. “How sure are you that the suspect you arrested was the perpetrator?
A. (Donahue): “There’s no doubt in my mind.”

Q. “What do you think the perpetrator’s intent was?”
A. (Donahue): “Realistically, unless he tells us we’ll never really know.”

Q. “Why didn’t you notify the neighborhood about what was going on?”
A. Commissioner Haas said the department has to balance three issues when releasing information:   privacy of the victims;  effectiveness of the investigation itself;  and public safety. Police can not speculate publicly, he said, and they have to be careful not to release information that compromises any of these requirements.

Supt. Burke and Deputy Supt. Ames emphasized the importance of taking standard precautions such as locking doors, installing window stoppers, lighting entrances, and using motion-detector lights. They recommended that residents with safety concerns sign up on line for the Citizen Alert Network by going to www.CambridgePolice.org and clicking on "The Alert Network" link on the left side of the page. Then click on the "Sign Up for Alerts" link and follow the instructions.

Deputy Supt. Elow commented on appearing as a police representative in the same building where she went to school years ago. “I used to eat lunch in this room,” she said. She was on duty at the crime scene on August 26; she praised the quick response of the emergency team, saying they probably saved the life of the adult male stabbing victim.

Residents said they had breathed somewhat easier after Colono was arrested. However, several said that until the time of the arrest—and even now—they did not know whether they were in danger or what precautions to take.

Haas said police presence on Pearl Street and around the neighborhood was markedly increased after the attack.

“You might not have noticed, because we used unmarked cars as well as regular patrol cars,” he said.

“What you’re telling us tonight is what we needed to know weeks ago,” one woman said.

Haas said the department had been on the verge of sending officers door-to-door to update and caution residents when they learned that a suspect had been identified via a single fingerprint obtained from a bloody handprint at the Pearl Street scene. Up to that point the case had been extremely complicated, he said; it led investigators in 8 different directions, all of which turned out to be dead ends. The fingerprint identification was a breakthrough.

The fingerprint was traced to Colono in connection with a 1998 marijuana arrest. At that point the department was directed by the District Attorney’s office to stop giving out information for fear of jeopardizing the case, according to the police spokesmen. DNA evidence from the Pearl Street scene is now being studied in an effort to link the suspect to the 2008 rape of two Brighton women. The department had help from the D.A.’s office, State Police, and Boston and Woburn Police.

Information officer Dan Riviello can be reached at http://www.cambridgema.gov/cpd/contact/mailform.cfm?email_id=130. He urged people to contact him with concerns, questions or comments about their safety or about the department or the case.

“If you contact me I will respond,” he said, adding, “. . .even if it’s only to say I can’t tell you anything.”

Several residents said they thought the police had done a good job.

“Your competence is reassuring—it makes me feel safer,” one said. “I also appreciate the efforts to protect the victims’ privacy.”

Afterwards attendees at the meeting chatted informally about their experiences in connection with the case. Dinty Child, owner of 220 Pearl Street, said the stabbing victim has left the house and is not expected back. He noted that a neighbor had organized people to bring in meals during the initial investigations; those efforts were greatly appreciated, he said.

Post Script 10-17-2010: Neighbors gathered informally outside the house on this Sunday afternoon to help out with chores, share refreshments, maybe plant some bulbs, reassure each other and, as one person put it, "cheer things up a bit."