Domestic Assault Incident Implicates Alleged Thieves

– Allison Goldsberry

When Medford Police were called to respond to a domestic violence incident the quick-thinking officers were able to nab a couple of alleged thieves.

It all began when alert neighbors called the cops with reports of a great deal of screaming coming from a home at 146 Fellsway West in the middle of the afternoon on Thursday, July 30. A resident of the house, Irene Gambelunghe, also called to report that her husband had slashed her brother, but the police were already arriving on scene by the time Gambelunghe placed the call.

Gambelunghe’s husband, Frank Addivinola was attempting to flee in a black Acura. Officers Carl Brooks, Michael Alpers, Dan D’Amico and Alan Wise, and Sergeant Patrick Duffy were able to nab Addivinola and arrest him. At that point, Addivinola was alleged to have beat his wife and slashed her brother in the face and in the back with a box cutter when he came to his sister’s aid.

However, the police recalled that the black Acura was believed to have been stolen and involved in an assault of a local man leaving Walgreen’s at Station Landing just over an hour prior to the domestic assault. Gambelunghe and Addivinola also fit the description of the suspects in that assault as well as several other area assaults and street robberies.

Both Addivinola and Gambelunghe were arrested at the scene. Addivinola has been charged with domestic assault and battery, mayhem, assault with a dangerous weapon, conspiracy to commit a crime, and receiving a stolen motor vehicle. Gambelunghe was charged with receiving a stolen motor vehicle and conspiracy to commit a crime.

More evidence was recovered that linked the couple to robberies that occurred in Burlington, Boston, Saugus, Bedford, and Chelsea. The information and evidence is being turned over to the authorities in those communities.

Medford Police Lieutenant Paul Covino commends the neighbors who called the cops in this incident because if police had only received Gambelunghe’s call, Addivinola would have had time to flee the scene.