Man Wanted by the FBI Hits Brookline Officer Over Head With Bottle, Gets Arrested

BROOKLINE, MA – Brookline Police arrested a Cambridge man wanted for threatening an FBI officer. In the process, he hit them over the head with a Snapple bottle, adding more charges to those for which he was wanted.

Federal agents located Polito by tracking the location of the cell phone to Washington Street - down the street from the Brookline Police Station and alerted the Brookline Police Department, which had already sent around FBI photos of the suspect. Agents warned officers in the area that the man might have a knife.

Officers arrived and said they recognized the wanted man from the FBI photo. When they went to arrest Carmen J. Polito, 35, of Pemberton St., Cambridge, he attempted to pull away, according to the police report, and hit an officer over the head with a plastic Snapple drink bottle.

Polito was eventually placed in handcuffs and because of his resistive behavior, leg shackles were added, according to the Police report. Subscribe to Brookline Patch for local news alerts and newsletters.

He was charged in federal court in Boston in connection with making threats to a FBI Task Force Officer, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. He was charged in a criminal complaint with knowingly transmitting in interstate communications containing a threat to kidnap or injure an FBI Task Force Officer in Miami, Florida.

At his initial appearance on May 5, U.S. District Court in Boston, Magistrate Judge M. Page Kelley ordered a competency evaluation. According to court documents, on May 3, 2017, Polito, an individual known to the FBI Miami Division, allegedly left threatening voice mails and sent threatening text messages to an FBI Task Force Officer assigned to the Miami Field Division.

In those voice messages, Polito allegedly threatened to stab the officer and made statements such as, “an officer is going to die.”

Polito also allegedly sent threatening texts with accompanying photographs including, various weapons, Boston City Hall, and police vehicles.

- Patch Reporter Lisa Redmond contributed to this article.