Police: Man Threatened Family with Knife on Dartmouth Footbridge

Update: 

Webster was arraigned Wednesday afternoon in Charlestown court, where Suffolk County prosecutors recommended that he be held on $450 cash bail.  Webster was released on his own recognizance with orders to stay away from the Esplanade during the pendency of his case – except on July 4, when Judge Lawrence McCormack said he may attend Fourth of July festivities but only with his family.  Webster will return to court on Aug. 3 with attorney Kirsten Wenge.

Original story:

State Police arrested a man who threatened a family – including a toddler – with a knife on the Dartmouth Street Footbridge just before 11:20 a.m. Troopers also found the weapon buried in the mud along the Charles River.

This afternoon they arrested Joel R. Webster, 37, of Boston, and charged him with assault with a dangerous weapon and threats to commit a crime. He was taken to the Charlestown Division of the Boston Municipal Court to be arraigned.

At 11:20 a.m., a 35-year-old man called the State Police Barracks and said he, along with his mother and his 2 ½-year-old daughter, had been assaulted by someone with a knife on the footbridge.

“According to the man, the suspect bumped into his 57-year-old mother, prompting the man to turn toward the suspect and state, ‘Excuse me,’” a release said. “The suspect then turned toward all three family members, removed a knife from his pants pocket, stepped toward them, and yelled back, “Excuse me! Excuse me!”

He then ran off the bridge and onto the Esplanade, and was seen running across Storrow Drive toward Clarendon Street. Police units flooded the area as the barracks broadcast a description: a white male in his late 30s with short dark hair and wearing jeans and a black t-shirt.

Six minutes later, Trooper Albert Balestra saw man fitting the description at the intersection of Arlington and Beacon streets. That man, later Webster, immediately stated “I don’t have a knife.”

He did acknowledge he had a “problem with a guy and his mother” on the Dartmouth Street footbridge and said he may have “used his keys.” Troopers read him his rights, and he again denied having a knife.

Both adult victims separately identified him as the attacker.

Meanwhile, three witnesses on the Esplanade told police they saw a man meeting Webster’s description burying an object on the banks of the Lagoon, near the footbridge.

At 12:10 p.m., Trooper Steven Cahill found a knife partially buried in mud in that location. Troopers from the State Police Crime Scene Services Section took possession of the knife for processing.