LAWRENCE — A 26-year-old city man, who was beaten with metal baseball bats and robbed of his cell phone, was in critical condition in a Boston hospital last night, police said.
Police who responded to a call of a fight near 8 Green St. about 7:50 p.m. Wednesday found Christian Negron sitting on the front steps of a nearby house.
"They just robbed him and hit him with baseball bats. He needs help. He's bleeding," a man standing beside Negron told Officer Michael Mangan.
Mangan called for an ambulance and then asked Negron for a description of the attackers. Negron told him he could not describe them because they hit him from behind as he was getting out of his car.
Negron, who was holding the wound in the back of his head, told police he was feeling dizzy.
He told Mangan that the only item he was aware of that had been taken was his cell phone.
The witness also could not provide a description of the attackers. "I just saw them hitting him with metal baseball bats, I didn't notice what they were wearing."
Another witness told police he heard a commotion while standing at Broadway and Green Street and saw two men running toward Franklin Street and followed them until they went into a house at Cross and Tremont streets.
Police said they are familiar with the house as a place where members of a local street gang hang out, but when they checked the house they did not find the men.
During a search of the area, Mangan found a metal baseball bat on the front porch of a home at 158 Franklin St.
Deputy Chief Michael Driscoll said yesterday investigators do not believe the bat was one of the two used in the attack on Negron.
He declined to label the attack as gang-related.
"At this point we don't know if it is gang-related, but we will be looking into whether it was or not."
As of yesterday afternoon, Negron remained in critical but stable condition in an unspecified Boston hospital.
