Boston police Superintendent Bruce A. Holloway and a former girlfriend have taken out restraining orders against each other after Holloway told a department official that the woman assaulted him on Sunday, police said.
Cheryl Fiandaca, a Boston police spokeswoman, said in a statement Tuesday that Holloway, the head of the Bureau of Investigative Services, informed Superintendent-in-Chief Daniel Linskey on Sunday that “he was the victim in a domestic violence incident.”
Fiandaca said that Holloway sought treatment for his injuries that night and applied for a restraining order against the woman on Monday in South Boston District Court, which a judge granted.
Fiandaca did not identify the woman or detail the nature of Holloway’s injuries.
The superintendent’s former girlfriend also applied for a restraining order against him on Tuesday in the same court after she was served with his order, Fiandaca said, and a judge denied her application.
veteran of the force
However, the woman appealed the decision to a Probate Court judge who later granted her a temporary restraining order, according to Fiandaca.
She said the department is monitoring the court process and the Internal Affairs department is investigating. Fiandaca said that Holloway is currently using accrued time and is on administrative status.
She said that the incident occurred at 11:30 a.m. on Sunday in Dorchester, and that she could not discuss the matter further because Holloway is an alleged victim of domestic violence.
Holloway, 55, could not be reached for comment Tuesday night.
According to his biography on the Boston police website, he joined the force in 1979 and was appointed to his current position in July 2007.
In 1986, then-Governor Michael S. Dukakis awarded the state’s highest medal of bravery to Holloway for capturing a robbery suspect who had assaulted and robbed a woman near Holloway’s Dorchester home.
The Globe reported that Holloway, who was off-duty on July 15, 1985, heard a woman screaming in the street and then chased and caught her assailant without firing a shot, even though the man fired at him twice.
In 2007, when Holloway was serving as the department’s night commander, he reflected on his tenure in an interview with the Globe.
“If you said to me 20 years ago, when I was arresting drug dealers, that I would reach the position of night commander, I would have said, ‘You’re nuts,’ ” Holloway said at the time.
“I always admired the men with the fancy hats. I’d think: ‘These guys have really arrived. That’s huge.’ I never dreamed I’d be one of them.”