Longo said the misdemeanor charge was filed because there was no indication the men intended to cause serious harm.

“The difficulty lies with respect to the malicious wounding is that the commonwealth has to prove intent to maim, disfigure,” Longo said. “There’s nothing to indicate there was any other bias or intent from either party.”

The case has generated a stir over the response of police, who left the investigation in the hands of patrol officers until Dec. 30, when Longo assigned it to detectives.

Referring to the delay, Longo said, “I don’t know whether or not it would have resulted in any different outcome, but it created a perception in the minds of others that the department hadn’t taken the matter seriously and that nothing had been done.

“I think it did influence the public’s perception of how seriously we took this incident and incidents like it.”

Longo said the department has adjusted its internal policies to ensure similar reports are reviewed by supervisors and transferred to investigators as soon as possible.