TAUNTON – A crossing guard is accused of attacking a mother and child at a stop sign near Taunton High School Monday morning.
Prosecutors say a woman was driving through the intersection where 68-year-old Louis Chaves was working around 7:30 a.m. when she had to stop to sneeze and blow her nose.
“While sneezing, she stopped the car because she needed a tissue to blow her nose,” a prosecutor said Monday during Chaves’ arraignment. “When she was stopped in the middle of the intersection, the crossing guard, this defendant walked up to the passenger side window and yelled at her to keep going. She started yelling at the crossing guard.”
“Pete me with his stop sign”
The woman told police that Chaves put the stop sign through the passenger window and started waving 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 into my car and started poking me with his stop sign and as he tried to reach me he hit my 12-year-old.”
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The mother got out of her car and claims she was thrown to the ground, punched and kicked.
“When the parent exited the vehicle and confronted this defendant about the assault, the defendant began assaulting her with a stop sign baton and ultimately threw her to the ground. While she was on the ground, she was dragged and repeatedly kicked by the suspect,” the prosecutor said.
The woman had multiple abrasions and cuts 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 charges of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. He was released on his own initiative.
A parent who witnessed the chaos as she dropped off her own students said: “It’s not right.”
“Maybe he was having a bad day or something, but I think the whole thing escalated to a place where it didn’t need to go,” said the witness who did not want to be identified. ‘From her side. I think she started it.”
Taunton Public Schools said the crossing guard was fired after the incident.
Confrontation with reporters outside the court
Chaves was visibly upset and confrontational as he left the court Monday afternoon. Video shows him pushing, shoving and kicking reporters.
“I think about the overwhelming and shock of having to go to court and finding out you’ve lost your job, and the shame you have to deal with in a city you’ve lived in all your life,” said the son-in-law of Chaves. “It’s a big thing and a big adjustment that you have to make right away and walk out, and now cameras are in your face.”
He was arrested by Taunton police on Monday evening over the incident outside the court. He will be arraigned Tuesday morning on several charges, including assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.
