Police reports reveal details of incidents involving school crossing guards in Taunton

TAUNTON – Police reports reveal new details about both incidents after a former Taunton Public Schools crossing guard was arrested twice in one day on suspicion of assault.

Former Taunton high school crossing guard Louis Freitas Chaves was initially charged with assaulting passengers in a vehicle outside Taunton High School while on duty on Monday morning, June 3.

He was subsequently arrested for a second time after being charged at Taunton District Court in connection with the first incident and was said to have lost his composure in front of television news crews.

Chaves is due back in court for a pretrial hearing on August 8.

What we learned about the first incident

Chaves, 68, was fired from his part-time job in the Taunton school district following an incident Monday morning involving a city woman who was traveling with her children in her pickup truck.

The 35-year-old city woman was allegedly attacked by Chaves – after she sneezed and stopped her vehicle in the middle of an intersection on school property at the shared campus of Taunton High School and John F. Parker Middle School at 50 Williams St.

Joshua DeOliveira, school resource officer for the Taunton Police Department, states in his report that when he arrived at the scene shortly after 7:30 a.m., he found the woman “visibly shaking” and “crying hysterically” sitting in her van.

According to DeOliveira, she screamed, “He (expletive) hit me with the stop sign stick!”

The woman reportedly stated that she stopped her van after sneezing because she needed a tissue to “blow her nose real quick.”

Alleged physical disputeSchool crossing guard arrested after alleged physical altercation outside Taunton High. What we know

At this point, Chaves reportedly went to the passenger window and yelled at her to keep driving. The woman reportedly yelled back that yelling at her “in front of my children” was going too far.

Chaves allegedly attempted to hit the woman with his stop sign stick by sticking it through the open passenger window, while also allegedly using profanities and telling her she needed to get out of there.

Instead of hitting the woman, the stop sign’s pole reportedly struck the arm of her daughter, who was sitting in the passenger seat. The girl later told DeOliveira she was not injured and managed to grab the sign and push it out the window.

The argument quickly escalated when the woman said she got out of her vehicle to confront Chaves, who then “attacked” her with the stop sign stick.

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The woman told DeOliveira that she landed on the ground in the middle of the intersection and that Chaves “dragged” her and kicked her “multiple times” after she landed on the sidewalk.

DeOliveira stated in his report that the woman, who was taken by ambulance to Morton Hospital for examination, had “multiple abrasions and cuts on her arms.”

Police said she called her boyfriend, who arrived at the scene to drive the children home in the van.

Chaves was arrested and charged with three counts of assault with a dangerous weapon, two counts of using a stop sign baton as a weapon and one count of using a so-called shod foot.

He was arraigned and released on $250 bail.

Second arrest of the day

What then happened outside the courthouse regarding Chaves’ alleged attack on the two television news workers was phase two of his troubles with the law that day.

Chaves was arrested for the second time in a day after he was caught on video outside the courthouse on Monday afternoon lightly kicking and slapping two cameramen from rival news channels.

The victims, who police said were not injured, accompanied reporters from a Providence television station and three Boston television stations in the hope of getting live commentary from the former school crossing guard.

In addition to his slapping and kicking outbursts, the video also shows an irate Chaves at one point picking up a small branch and throwing it in the general direction of the news crews.

A woman identified by police as his wife grabs Chaves by his shirt and in a video clip he can be heard saying, “Louie, stop!”

Police decided to arrest Chaves at his home that evening after, according to police headquarters, they saw “videos from various news outlets” showing Chaves attacking a Boston 25 News cameraman in a rage.

According to police reports, the videos also showed Chaves hitting a shoulder camera held by a member of the Providence-based WPRI-TV news crew. The camera was not damaged, police said.

Chaves was arrested at his home on Monday evening at around 9:45 p.m.

He was taken to the police station where he was booked and charged with assault with a dangerous weapon (shod foot), assault with a dangerous weapon (stick/branch) and simple assault.

It is unclear whether he was held overnight or released on bail ahead of his court date the next morning.

During his arraignment Tuesday morning, Judge Paul McCallum denied the state’s request to revoke Chaves’ previous $250 bail.

Chaves reportedly did not cause any disturbance during or after his second indictment.

According to court records, Chaves was charged with the civil misdemeanor of failure to stop or yield at a stop sign or red light in 2012 and 2017. In both cases, the charges were dropped and he was found “not guilty.”

He was also mentioned in a 2023 Taunton Daily Gazette article that pointed out the ongoing traffic congestion around the high school and middle school grounds.

Chaves noted in the article that it was not uncommon for traffic to extend from Dean Street/Route 44 to beyond the school grounds after school on weekdays.

What we learned about the first incident

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