A high school crossing guard outside Boston was jailed twice in the same day after police said he attacked a woman and her child with a portable stop sign before he allegedly pummeled a news crew outside the courthouse where he had just been arraigned.
Louis Chaves, 68, was charged with two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and one count of assault and battery for allegedly kicking one victim, according to the Taunton Police Department.
Chaves was fired from his job following back-to-back physical altercations on June 3.
The initial incident unfolded on Williams Street outside Taunton High School, where a female driver stopped at the intersection where Chaves was stationed about 7:30 a.m.
She later explained to authorities that she was briefly distracted because she had to sneeze, forcing her to delay so she could quickly blow her nose.
That’s when the crossing guard walked up to the passenger-side window and began yelling at her to continue driving as the woman’s daughter sat between them, police said.
When the driver didn’t move fast enough, Chaves took matters into his own hands, prosecutors said.
“He was yelling at her while her child was in the vehicle. The crossing guard then put the stop sign stick through the passenger window and started swinging it all around the car, calling her names and told her that she needs to get out of there,” prosecutors said in court papers, according to local news station WCVB. “The defendant was swinging the stop sign stick in the vehicle, and it struck the daughter in her arm.”
The mother, who did not give her name, said she was shocked by the man’s aggressive behavior.
“I was like you need to calm down,” she said, according to reports. “He reached in my car and started jabbing me with his stop sign and in the process of him trying to reach me he was hitting my 12-year-old.”
That’s when the woman got out of the vehicle to confront the guard, and Chaves allegedly threw the woman to the ground, dragging and kicking her repeatedly, police said.
“When the parent got out of the vehicle and confronted this defendant about the assault, that’s when the defendant started to attack her with a stop sign stick, eventually throwing her to the ground,” court papers said.
The woman was treated at Morton Hospital for minor injuries, including bruises and lacerations on her arms.
The child was reportedly not harmed.
Chaves was arrested initially in the afternoon, while a judge in the Taunton District Court granted bail and ordered him to return Aug. 8 to face the charges.
But as Chaves walked out of the courthouse, his temper got the best of him.
Video shows him lunging at camera crews waiting for him outside, while the woman with Chaves tried to hold him back and urged him to relax, but Chaves didn’t listen and began pushing and shoving his way through.
Chaves is also shown trying to kick one of the news photographers while allegedly hitting another cameraman and throwing a stick toward his targets.
Later that night, Taunton police showed up to arrest Chaves again — this time on charges of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and assault with a dangerous weapon in connection with the dust-up outside the courthouse.
Chaves spent the night in jail and faced a second arraignment the next morning, where he was granted a $250 bond and released.
The judge ordered Chaves to undergo a mental health evaluation and meet other pre-release conditions, according to the Boston Herald.
No other incidents involving Chaves were reported.
It was not immediately clear if this was the first incident involving Chaves, who did not make a public statement following a harrowing day that began like any other but ended with him facing felony charges.
The school district confirmed that Chaves was fired on the spot following the incidents.
“Taunton Public Schools is aware of a physical altercation this morning (June 3) involving a crossing guard,” Taunton Public Schools said in a statement. As a result of the incident, “the crossing guard has been terminated, effective immediately, and is no longer an employee of Taunton Public Schools.”
Another parent who witnessed the scuffle from the student pick-up line said she felt the woman was at fault.
“Maybe he was having a bad day or what, but I think the whole thing escalated to a place that it didn’t need to go to,” the witness said without identifying herself. “On her part. I think she started it.”
