The man accused of swinging two machetes at a bus stop in Central Square on Aug. 1, slashing one bystander, and then barricading himself in his apartment in The Port for 18 hours had been evaluated and found mentally competent at a Boston courthouse just three days before.
Princiano Faustin, 51, was released on his own recognizance July 29 after being arrested in Boston on charges that he assaulted a police officer, threatened to commit a crime and resisted arrest.
Prosecution and defense agreed to the release before Boston Municipal Court judge John E. McDonald ordered Faustin freed, with the next hearing scheduled Sept. 11, according to court records. Before McDonald’s ruling, he ordered a mental competency examination by a courthouse clinician, who didn’t recommend treatment or further assessment…