Off-duty Boston Police Officer Stops Assault on an MBTA Bus in Watertown

A Boston man faces assault charges after getting into a fight with a woman on an MBTA bus at 5:17 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 24. He was stopped by an off-duty Boston Police officer.

When Watertown Police arrived they found a group of people standing on the sidewalk near the bus on Arsenal Street near Arlington Street, said Watertown Police Lt. Michael Lawn.

“The officer entered the bus and found two individuals on the ground,” Lawn said. “One identified himself as an off-duty Boston Police officer. He held down the suspect until police arrived.”

The incident started when a male passenger began yelling at others on the bus and tried to grab some of the female passengers, Lawn said.

“A female told the man to stop doing that,” Lawn said. “The man tried to strike her, but she raised her hand and stopped him.”

The man attacked the woman and they wrestled on the floor, Lawn said. The bus driver stopped and put on the emergency signal.

The Boston officer stopped when he spotted the T bus stopped with its emergency signal on. He pulled the man off the woman and held him to wait for Watertown Police.

When Watertown Police arrived, the man yelled at them and would not cooperate when they arrested him, Lawn said.

The suspect, Mark A. Bolotte, 30, of 17 Court St. Apt. 8 in Boston, was arrested on charges of disturbing the peace, two counts of assault and battery – one for assaulting the woman and one for attacking her 18-year old daughter – and one count of resisting arrest, Lawn said.