https://www.masslive.com/boston/202...eat-gushers-candy-in-restaurant-bathroom.html
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Published: Apr. 24, 2026, 1:04 p.m.
By Irene Rotondo | IRotondo@masslive.com
A 34‑year‑old, partially undressed Boston man has been accused of forcing a child to eat Gushers candy in a restaurant bathroom last month, then following the child and his friends to a nearby playground.
The incident — which resulted in a kidnapping charge — unfolded at the 99 Restaurant on Austin Street in Charlestown on March 21, according to a report from the Boston Police Department.
A 13‑year‑old boy was at the restaurant that Saturday afternoon with a group of friends when he went into the bathroom and encountered a 34‑year‑old man he did not know.
The man was standing in the bathroom shirtless and holding an unopened box of Gushers candy, the report states. Gushers is a gummy snack with fruit-flavored liquid inside.
The man told the child to eat a gummy from the box.
The child tried several times to go around the man, who was standing in front of the door, and asked to leave. The man, however, “maintained his position inhibiting the victim from leaving and continued to demand the victim eat the candy,” according to the report.
After being asked “multiple times,” the child said he felt intimidated and was “afraid of the large shirtless male.” He eventually accepted one piece of candy and ate it in front of the man, who then allowed him to leave the bathroom.
The boy returned to his friends and the group left the restaurant, police said. They headed to Edwards Playground on Eden Street, about a 10‑minute walk away.
The man followed the children out of the restaurant and on their way to the playground, asking them to pass their basketball to him. He then followed them onto the playground, the report said.
Boston police were called to the playground just before 2 p.m. by the father of one of the children. The father told officers the man had already left the area but shared what the children said happened at the restaurant.
While one officer interviewed the 13‑year‑old and called for an ambulance, two other officers searched the area for the man. The child was taken to Boston Children’s Hospital for evaluation and his drug screen later came back negative, police said.
Police located the man on Dunstable Street, where he immediately told officers, “They was bothering me at the bar. I didn’t touch nobody or nothing,” according to the report. He also said he had no drugs or weapons and that he “didn’t do anything bad.”
Officers handcuffed the man “due to his erratic behavior and the nature of the call” as the investigation continued, police wrote. He was placed under a Section 12 psychiatric hold for “unknown psychosis, impaired judgment leading to impulsive behavior and fluctuating mood,” including the suspected bathroom incident.
The man was later identified as an unhoused individual living in Boston with multiple recent arrests, including an assault charge on March 12 in New York City. Boston police communicated with New York City Police, who described the man as known to them as an “emotionally disturbed person.”
He also has a “significant criminal history” with records in Georgia, New York, Virginia and North Carolina. According to police, those records include public indecency charges from Georgia State University Police, multiple sexual abuse and harassment charges in New York — including “subjecting another person to sexual contact without consent” and “forcible touching” — as well as assault and battery charges and a charge of “criminal obstruction of breathing or blood circulation.”
In the days leading up to the incident involving the 13‑year‑old, the man was also accused of punching a concierge in the head at the Hyatt Centric Hotel on Devonshire Street in Boston, police said. The concierge had asked him to leave after observing him standing nearby “to watch children playing” and holding one of the toys.
Police also said the man followed a woman into a parking garage on Stuart Street, making her feel unsafe “to the point she contacted security for an escort from her vehicle.”
He was arraigned on charges of kidnapping of a child and accosting or annoying another person April 15 in the Charlestown Division of Boston Municipal Court, where bail was set at $1,500. His next court date is scheduled for May 13 via Zoom.
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