Fall River Police Chief Paul Gauvin says reports on FBI raid are nothing more than rumors

Late Monday evening, multiple sources indicated to Fall River Reporter that the home of a Fall River Police Officer had been raided by FBI agents.

In an attempt to authenticate these statements, we reached out to the station directly. Watch commander Sgt. Silva stated that he was unable to confirm reports that this had occurred.

Shortly thereafter, Police Chief Paul Gauvin contacted this reporter and stated that he was unable to confirm the reports at that time.

However, early this morning, responding to an inquiry from this reporter, Sgt. Moses Pereira stated that he has confirmed with all parties that the reports are false and “no such incident occurred.”

Gauvin reached out again this morning and stated that he had spoken to the officer and confirmed that no raid had taken place.

When asked why sources were reporting this to be true, Gauvin responded:

“Look what I’m going through. This is just another attempt to discredit me and our department. More factions.”

Gauvin is referencing the recent majority vote of ‘no confidence’ that unions took last month that resulted in he and Mayor Paul Coogan deciding Gauvin would step down as Chief this month. Gauvin will remain on the department as a captain.

Coogan confirmed that yesterday he held informal interviews with existing members of the police department to fill the role of interim chief. This will be the fourth chief to assume the role since Coogan took office in 2020.