Police kill ex-New Bedford deputy fire chief outside bar
Police shot and killed former New Bedford deputy fire chief outside a Fairhaven bar in an interaction that also left one officer wounded by a gunshot.
Fairhaven Police responded at around 4:30 p.m. to the Bayside Lounge on Sconticut Neck Road Friday after receiving a call that a drunk patron of the bar was physically fighting someone who was trying to prevent him from driving. When police arrived, that man had a gun on him, according to the Bristol District Attorney’s office.
“Unfortunately the individual who was reported to be intoxicated fired his weapon, fire was returned as a result of that and he was killed,” Bristol DA
Thomas Quinn III summarized during a press conference near the scene of the incident.
Police identified the man as Paul Coderre, 55, of Dartmouth. Quinn confirmed to the media that Coderre was the former interim deputy New Bedford Fire Chief.
Quinn said that Coderre bad been drinking for hours in the Lounge with friends when “there was an altercation inside the Lounge that led him going outside. He attempted to get into a vehicle but was stopped.”
“Police responded to the scene. He was in possession of a firearm. They attempted to speak with him and deescalate the situation,” Quinn said. “Several attempts were made to use non-deadly force to subdue him, including the use of a taser. Those attempts were not successful.”
Quinn said that Coderre fired at police, which was an assembly of local Fairhaven officers as well as those from the nearby departments at Acushnet and Mattapoisett who had come due to mutual aid agreements.
An Acushnet officer was shot in the leg. In response, an officer returned fire, striking and killing Coderre.
The injured officer, who has not been identified, was transported from the scene to Saint Luke’s Hospital in New Bedford, where he was treated and later released.
“This again highlights the dangers that police officers face every day while responding to these types of situations, especially for the potential for violence, individuals in possession of firearms, it certainly puts their lives in danger,” Quinn said.
New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell, in a statement Friday night, called the incident “tragic in every sense.”
“I am relieved that the officer who was injured will make a full recovery,” Mitchell said, “and that no one else was seriously hurt.”
Mitchell and Coderre’s relationship came to a head in early 2022 when the mayor fired the deputy fire chief for “dishonesty and untruthfulness in connection with alleged work-related injuries.”
Coderre claimed to have suffered several work-related injuries in 2019 that led him to being placed on injury leave in August 2020, according to city officials. While on leave, Coderre received full pay, pursuant to state law.
At the time he made the claims, Coderre had been serving as acting fire chief, a position in which he earned $150,000 annually. He then returned to deputy chief status after the city appointed a permanent chief in early 2022.
Separate investigations, one an independent medical examination and the other conducted by the city’s Personnel Office, yielded evidence of “Coderre performing activities inconsistent with his alleged injuries” and that he was “putting on an act,” according to city officials.
“Coderre received $208,574 in injured-onduty benefits while he was on injury leave during the 16-month period from August 2020 through the end of 2021,” a February 2022 release from the mayor’s office stated. “In addition, Coderre benefited from laws which exempted him from paying any state or federal income taxes while on injury leave.”
In late November, however, the state Civil Service Commission had determined that the termination was “unlawful” and the city “failed to prove that he had misrepresented his physical abilities to avoid returning to duty or otherwise abused the fire department’s injury leave policy.”