Suspect arrested in NYE stabbing, kidnapping on Boston Common

BOSTON — Boston Police say they've arrested a suspect in connection with the robbery of a local teacher who said he was stabbed and kidnapped during a terrifying ambush in Boston Public Garden on New Year's Eve.

Joshua Enos, 21, of Lynn, was arrested Thursday by members of the Boston Police Fugitive Unit on Essex Street in Lynn on charges of armed robbery, armed kidnapping with serious bodily injury and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.

Police found surveillance video at several downtown businesses showing the crime in process. Enos' tattoos were picked up on video and used to identify him.

Police are still working to identify two additional suspects.

In an exclusive with Boston 25 News last week, Zach Johnston, 24, said he was forced to withdraw $500 dollars from an ATM after the suspects came out of nowhere and attacked him around 10 p.m after he was walking through Boston Common and over to the Public Garden with two other people when they were ambushed.

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“As it often happens in the city, when you just cross paths and normally that’s it, but this time it turned out differently," Johnston said.

Johnston said he and his friend were walking ahead of his brother when the suspects "were all coming to my brother."

He and his friend rushed to his brother's side to diffuse the confrontation, which he described as "a very chaotic scene."

They first surrounded his younger brother. Johnston says one had a knife, the other had a gun.

“My brother and I are, we’re like, 6 feet plus over 200 pounds. We’re just these big hulking guys. We’re always like, 'No one would ever want to mess with us,'" Johnston said. “It’s different when people have weapons because they control, and it doesn’t matter what your size is."

Johnston, who works as a teacher at South Shore Charter school, said he, his brother and his friend didn’t put up any fight and complied with every demand, giving up wallets and cash.

But he said that didn’t stop him from getting stabbed near his waist.

“I’d been feeling the pain and just thought I got hit pretty hard and I went to feel it," Johnston said. "That’s when I realized it was more serious."

He didn't realize his injury until after one of the suspects separated him from the others, forcing him to withdraw $500 dollars from a Bank of America ATM in Downtown Crossing.

Johnston said the suspects also demanded that his brother give them the PIN to his debit card -- threatening that they knew his name and address from the license in his wallet -- and withdrew $200 from his brother's account.

Johnston’s father believes this could’ve happened to anyone.

“Don’t travel by yourself at night especially not on the Common or the Public Garden because there’s a horrible element out there," Brian Johnston said. “I just don’t want this to happen again to somebody else, and I don’t want someone else to get hurt worse than my son did. I’m just thankful it’s over and both my sons are alive.”

Zach Johnston didn't expect to be attacked.

“You kind of just feel like it’s not going to happen to you," he said. "Nothing is really worth losing your life over."

Cox Media Group