City of Fall River settles lawsuit over 2016 death after in police custody

The City of Fall River has settled a lawsuit concerning a man who later died after being in police custody.

According to Ben Burke of The Public’s Radio 89.3FM, Fall River will pay the family of then 48-year-old Scott Macomber $315,000 as part of a settlement that was reached last month in a civil rights lawsuit over Macomber’s death after being placed in police custody.

In the agreement, Fall River “maintains that the family’s allegations of wrongdoing are factually and legally without merit.”

In a lawsuit filed in April of 2019, Barbara Robinson, the estate representative and then partner of the deceased, contended in the document that on May 16, 2016, officers entered Macomber’s home without a search warrant or consent to arrest his cousin on outstanding warrants. The suit accused officers of using excessive force by beating, restraining, and repeatedly tasing Macomber who later went into cardiac arrest and died later that day.

The Bristol County District Attorney’s office concluded in March of 2017 that the level of force used by the Fall River Police in the death of Macomber was not excessive and did not cause his death. The DA concluded that Macomber resisted arrest that led to a struggle with police officers and non-lethal force being used by officers. The autopsy report concluded that Macomber’s death was the result of cardiac dysrhythmia due to hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.

The BCDA report stated the following:

At approximately 11:30 a.m. on May 16, 2016, Frederick Garfield walked into the Fall River Police station and spoke with Officer Matthew Pacheco who was working the front desk. Garfield told Pacheco that his ex-girlfriend, Lisa McNally, had several outstanding arrest warrants and that she was staying at an apartment on Mount Hope Avenue in Fall River. Officer Pacheco relayed Garfield’s information to another Fall River Officer, Joshua Carreiro, in the Fall River Police Department’s Special Operations. Officer Pacheco confirmed through the state-wide warrant management system that McNally had outstanding warrants and he provided that information to Officer Carreiro.

Officer Carreiro knew Lisa McNally from prior dealings with her. Officer Carreiro had no prior dealings with Garfield before meeting Garfield at the station. Garfield described some of his issues with McNally and he told Carreiro that McNally was living with her cousins. Garfield said that McNally would not come outside if she knew the police were outside and that if the police tried to speak with the occupants of the apartment, the occupants would lie for her. Garfield believed McNally would run from the police if she was caught outside and that her cousins, “Barbie and Scott,” would try to hide her. Garfield volunteered to assist police in the arrest of McNally by drawing her out of the dwelling.

Officer Carreiro informed police dispatch what he was going to do. He requested assistance from two additional patrol officers and asked them to stand by in the vicinity of Mount Hope Avenue and to respond if he needed them.

At Mount Hope Avenue, it took some time before McNally came out of the apartment. Officer Carreiro drove past the address before he parked on an adjacent street. From this location, Officer Carreiro saw Garfield and McNally come out of the building. Upon seeing McNally, Officer Carreiro recognized her “right away.” Carreiro approached in his vehicle, but McNally noticed him right away and she quickly ran toward the apartment door entrance.

Officer Carreiro, in full uniform, exited and ran after McNally. Carreiro chased McNally on foot as she ran back to the building. He shouted to her, saying, “Lisa stop, you have warrants.”

McNally got to the door of the building; she entered and slammed the door on Carreiro who was right behind her. McNally continued to the first floor apartment, entered and closed the door behind her. Carreiro immediately came to the door, turned the knob and tried to push open the door, but was met with resistance. As Carreiro tried to open the door, and follow her into the as apartment he could feel people on the inside pushing back on the door. Carreiro forced the door open a crack and got a quick glimpse of a woman, who was not McNally, pushing the door shut.

The door quickly slammed shut again and he heard the click of the lock. Carreiro couldn’t understand why McNally was so intent on running and he yelled to her…”Lisa don’t do this, it’s only warrants.”

Carreiro was able to force the locked door open and enter the apartment. Inside, he found a woman, who was unfamiliar to him, behind the door. She began to shout at the officer and Scott Macomber emerged from a room. Macomber approached Carreiro in the interior of the apartment and came into physical contact with the officer, in an effort to keep Carreiro from getting to McNally. The apartment occupants were yelling at the officer. Carreiro asked where Lisa was, and the occupants denied that Lisa was in the apartment. Along with Scott was Macomber, the two women were identified as Barbara Robinson and Jennifer Bernadini. Bernadini had a young child with her in the apartment.

The two back-up officers responded to the apartment to assist Officer Carreiro. After officers arrested Ms. McNally, Officer Carreiro turned his attention to Mr. Macomber, who had interfered with him when Carreiro was searching for McNally inside of the apartment, Macomber struggled with the officers, causing a physical confrontation in the living room of the apartment. During the confrontation one of the officers unholstered his Taser weapon and warned Mr. Macomber that if he didn’t stop he would be tased. Mr. Macomber did not stop, despite several warnings, and as a result an Officer applied the Taser directly to the Macomber’s body’ in order to gain control over Mr. Macomber. Evidence downloaded from the “Taser Sync” showed three separate applications of the Taser. The first lasted three seconds, the second lasted two seconds and the third lasted one second.

Mr. Macomber was handcuffed and taken into custody. In accordance with Fall River Police Department protocol, an ambulance was immediately summoned even though Mr. Macomber was making no complaints of pain and was exhibiting no signs of distress. Police took Macomber and McNally and placed them into separate police cruisers. While in the cruiser, Macomber asked for a window to be rolled down. Shortly thereafter, he went into medical distress. Fall River Rescue arrived on the scene and EMTs attended to Mr. Macomber and transported him to St. Anne’s Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 1:20 P.M. An autopsy performed by the Chief Medical Examiner of the Commonwealth determined the cause of death to be Cardiac Dysrhythmia due to hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease and that the manner of Mr. Macomber’s death was natural.