Crossing guard accused of attacking woman with stop sign near Massachusetts school
TAUNTON - A crossing guard is accused of attacking a mother and child with a stop sign near Taunton High School on Monday morning.
Prosecutors say a woman was driving through the intersection where 68-year-old Louis Chaves was working at about 7:30 a.m. when she had to stop to sneeze and blow her nose.
"As she sneezed, she stopped the vehicle because she needed a tissue to blow her nose," a prosecutor said at Chaves' arraignment Monday. "As she was stopped in the middle of the intersection, the crossing guard, this defendant walked up to her passenger side window and yelled at her to keep driving. She started to yell at the crossing guard."
"Jabbing me with his stop sign"
The woman told police that Chaves put the stop sign through the passenger window and started swinging it. The woman says a child in the car was hit by the stick.
"I was like you need to calm down," said the woman who did not want to be identified. "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."
The mother got out of her car and claims she was thrown to the ground, hit, and kicked.
"When the parent got out of the vehicle, 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. Stated while she was on the ground, she was dragged and kicked repeatedly by the defendant," the prosecutor said.
The woman had multiple abrasions and lacerations on her arm. "I ended up with a lump on my head, a bruise on the side of my face and a cut on my wrist," the woman said.
Chaves faces three counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. He was released on his own recognizance.
A parent who witnessed the chaos as she dropped off her own students said, "it doesn't add up."
"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 who did not want to be identified said. "On her part. I think she started it."
Taunton Public Schools said the crossing guard was fired after the incident.
Confrontation with reporters outside court
Chaves was visibly upset and confrontational as he left court Monday afternoon. Video shows him pushing, shoving, and kicking reporters.
"I think the overwhelm and shock of actually being in court and finding out you lost your job, and the embarrassment you have to deal with in a town you've lived in your whole life," Chaves' son-in-law said. "It's a big thing and a big adjustment to have to make instantly and to walk out and now you have cameras popping up in your face."
He was arrested by Taunton police Monday night for the incident outside court. He will be arraigned Tuesday morning on several charges including assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.