Brandeis and Waltham Police officers responded to an emergency call at 1:37 a.m. Monday morning and found two Brandeis graduate students who had been stabbed repeatedly on Wheelock Road. The victims were transported to different nearby hospitals and are “expected to survive,” according to a press release put out by the Waltham Police Department. 

At 2:28 a.m., the Brandeis student body received an automated call from the Brandeis Emergency Notification System alerting students of the stabbing. The call described the suspect as a white male of medium build wearing a black shirt and black pants with a white stripe. The notification system warned that the suspect might be near William F. Stanley Elementary School or on campus and that students should call the police immediately if they see someone matching this description. 

According to a press release put out by Waltham Police, officers responded to a call reporting a man covered in blood breaking into a car at 3:34 a.m. An article published Monday morning by the Boston Globe says that the officers were able to identify him as the suspect and take him into custody by around 5:15 a.m. He is reported to be a 16-year-old Waltham resident. 

On Monday afternoon, Vice Provost of Student Affairs Raymond Lu Ming Ou sent an email to the Brandeis community regarding the incident. “We were shocked and saddened to learn that two of our graduate students were victims of a stabbing overnight,” Ou wrote. The email included links to resources for support on campus, including the Counseling Center, the Dean of Students Office and the Office of Graduate Student Affairs. “This is a challenging day,” Ou wrote. “As we send our best wishes for our students’ recovery, let’s also take an extra moment to extend kindness and compassion to each other.” 

Shoshi Finkel ’20, who resides on Shakespeare Road about six houses down from where the incident occurred, told the Justice that she began to hear police sirens and see search lights through her window shades as she was getting ready to go to bed at around 2 a.m. The lights and sirens stayed on for about an hour, during which time “we really knew nothing. All I knew was that there was a stabbing on campus that was near [Stanley Elementary], so I knew it was near me,” Finkel said.  “Oftentimes graduate life is mysterious to undergraduates, and it would be helpful to know more about the victims and how the student body can help them and the rest of the graduate community,” she said.

—Emily Blumenthal contributed reporting.

—Editor’s Note: Shoshi Finkel is an Arts Staff Writer.