One killed, two wounded in stabbing in Boston’s Dudley Square as Sandra Bullock movie films nearby

By Travis Andersen and Wesley Lowery, Globe Staff and Globe Correspondent

A Boston police officer working a security ­detail on the set of a Sandra Bullock movie filming in Dudley Square Tuesday afternoon helped chase down a suspect after three people were stabbed, one fatally, outside a federal office near the location of the film shoot, police said.

Boston police said that the stabbing occurred at Dudley and Washington streets shortly before 2 p.m. and that one of the three male victims, ranging in age from about 17 to 21, later died at Boston Medical Center. The injuries to the other two men were not life-threatening, police said.

A detail officer on the set of “The Heat,” a buddy cop movie starring Bullock and Melissa McCarthy that was filming at Shawmut and Washington streets, helped chase and capture the suspect, who was taken into custody for questioning, police said.

It was not immediately clear what charges, if any, the suspect will face in connection with the stabbings.

Authorities did not immediately identify the suspect or the victims and did not go into detail about what touched off the dispute.

“As soon as our officers heard and saw what was going on, they ran after the suspect,” said Superintendent William Evans.

Police said Tuesday night in a statement that witnesses indicated the dispute began outside the Social Security Administration office at 10 Malcom X Boulevard.

Residents who live behind the building said they heard a commotion and later saw as many as 10 officers apprehend the suspect as he resisted ­arrest. Paramedics placed two of the victims on stretchers and performed CPR on one of them, witnesses said.

A 51-year-old man who would only identify himself as Mr. C said he was watching the movie shoot when he saw “cops scatter everywhere.”

“Their radios went haywire, I guess,” the man said.

Police removed crime scene tape from the front of the building at around 6 p.m. and escorted the remaining office staff to their cars, about a half-hour ­after crews arrived to wash blood off the parking lot, mainly in the back exit.

Shortly after the tape came down, a large knife was discovered in a parking space near the scene of the stabbing.

Police seized the knife, which had been obstructed by a parked car, as evidence, but it was ­unclear if the assailant had used it as the homicide weapon.

Two hours earlier, police ­allowed about 10 people inside the building to leave.

“I’m just ready to get out of here,” said one man who had been stuck there since 1 p.m.

The film crew was shooting a scene for the movie at about 4:15 p.m., and Deborah ­Simmrin, a publicist for the project, said they stopped working for only a minute or two when the stabbings ­occurred because of the sirens. She said the crew did not know what had happened.

“We stopped when the ­sirens came by, but they come by all day, so we don’t know what they’re for,” she said.

Simmrin said there were no plans to beef up security.

“We’re very secure,” she said, as a private security guard and two Boston police officers were visible behind her.

The stabbings occurred one day after an MBTA bus crashed into a movie trailer that the company was using Monday, sending about 15 passengers to area hospitals as a precaution.

Bullock, who was around the corner and out of sight at the time of the crash, has previously encountered difficulty while filming in Massachusetts.

In April 2008, she and Jesse James, then her husband, were hit in a head-on collision by a drunk driver in Gloucester, where she was filming “The Proposal,” a romantic comedy.

The couple was not hurt, and the rented black 2008 Chevy sport utility vehicle they were traveling in was towed from the scene.

A Gloucester police officer said at the time that Bullock and James were hugging each other when he approached the scene, and they were driven away about 20 minutes later by Bullock’s security detail. ­Bullock and James later ­divorced.