School crossing guard from Taunton allegedly attacked woman with stop sign near a school

TAUNTON – A school crossing guard is accused of attacking a mother and her child at a stop sign near Taunton High School Monday morning.

According to prosecutors, a woman was driving through the intersection where 68-year-old Louis Chaves was working around 7:30 a.m. and had to stop to sneeze and blow her nose.

“When she sneezed, she stopped the vehicle because she needed a tissue to blow her nose,” a prosecutor said Monday at Chaves’s arraignment. “When she stopped in the middle of the intersection, the defendant went to the passenger window and yelled at her to keep driving. She started yelling at the school crossing guard.”

“He stabs me with his stop sign”

The woman told police Chaves threw the stop sign through the passenger window and began swinging it around. The woman said a child in the car was struck by the stick.

“I thought I should calm down,” said the woman, who asked to remain anonymous. “He reached into my car and started hitting me with his stop sign. While he was trying to reach me, he hit my 12-year-old.”

The mother got out of her car and claimed she was thrown to the ground, punched and kicked.

“When the mother got out of the vehicle and confronted the defendant about the attack, the defendant began to attack her with a stop sign stick and eventually threw her to the ground. While she was on the ground, the defendant dragged her and kicked her repeatedly,” the prosecutor said.

The woman had numerous abrasions and cuts on her arm. “I had a bump on my head, a bruise on the side of my face and a cut on my wrist,” the woman said.

Chaves is accused of three counts of assault with a dangerous weapon. He was released on parole.

One mother who witnessed the chaos while dropping off her own children said: “This doesn’t make sense.”

“Maybe he was having a bad day or something, but I think the whole thing escalated to a point that it didn’t need to,” said the witness, who asked to remain anonymous. “On her part. I think she started it.”

Taunton Public Schools said the school crossing guard was fired following the incident.

Confrontation with reporters in court

Chaves was visibly upset and belligerent as he left court on Monday afternoon. Video shows him shoving, pushing and kicking reporters.

“I think the overwhelmingness and the shock of actually being in court and learning that you’ve lost your job and the embarrassment that you have to deal with in a city that you’ve lived in your whole life,” Chaves’ son-in-law said. “It’s a big deal and a big adjustment to have to make right away and then to go out there and suddenly have cameras in your face.”

He was arrested by Taunton police on Monday evening over the incident outside the courthouse. He will face court on Tuesday morning on a number of charges, including assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.