Boston man pleads not guilty in assault on Suffolk jail officer

The Suffolk County House of Correction.John Tlumacki/Globe Staff/File

A 45-year-old Boston man was held on $750 bail Friday for his alleged role in the assault of a Suffolk County House of Correction officer who was attacked the day before near the jail as he was heading to work, prosecutors said.

The suspect, Torre Jenkins, was arraigned in Roxbury Municipal Court on charges of breaking and entering of a motor vehicle and attempted larceny of a motor vehicle, authorities said.

Suffolk District Attorney Rachael Rollins’s office said prosecutors had requested $10,000 bail, but the presiding judge set the lower figure. A not-guilty plea was entered on Jenkins’s behalf. It wasn’t immediately clear who represented him in court Friday or whether he had posted bail.

Additional suspects in the attack remain at large.

In a statement Thursday, Suffolk Sheriff Steven W. Tompkins’s office said the officer, who wasn’t named, had not yet changed into his uniform at the time of the assault.

“While in his car on Atkinson Street, a person reached through the open window and struck the officer. . . . Once outside of the vehicle, it is reported that he was surrounded by multiple people who began to strike and attack him,” the statement said.

Boston Police Sergeant Detective John Boyle, a department spokesman, said officers responded to the area of 112 Southampton St. near Atkinson Street shortly before 8 a.m. Thursday to investigate the assault call.

One witness reported seeing the assault just before 7:30 a.m., telling police that a suspect struck the 28-year-old Suffolk officer in the face with an object described as some type of metal pipe, Boyle said.

He said the wounded officer had already been taken to Boston Medical Center, and the suspects had already fled, by the time police arrived.

The victim told police at BMC that one assailant had “yelled out to him” as he drove down Atkinson Street, so he rolled down his window, Boyle said. Authorities said a man approached him and struck him in the face “with an open fist.”

The victim got out of the car, and a fight ensued, according to police. During the brawl, one suspect took the officer’s watch, glasses, and phone and tried unsuccessfully to take his wallet, authorities said. According to police, the victim was struck with a metal pipe multiple times during the conflict.

Ultimately, about five people joined in the attack, Boyle said.

Jenkins had four active warrants related to drug-related charges and an assault charge, among others, authorities said.