Two Fall River juveniles were cut trying to wrestle a knife away from a man who police say chased and threatened their group at Kennedy Park on Tuesday night. Officers with the Fall River Police Department Patrol Bureau responded to the historic 57-acre park around 8 p.m. after a report of a man armed with a knife attempting to stab several juveniles near the park's pavilion. By the time officers arrived, they found the situation dangerous and chaotic, but ultimately brought it under control.
According to the City of Fall River Police Department, officers located the suspect, identified as 38-year-old Fall River resident Chanthu Yee, near the pavilion and took him into custody. Police say Yee became confrontational with a group of juveniles, was heavily intoxicated, and threatened and chased members of the group before producing a pocketknife. Officers recovered a knife near the pavilion, and Yee himself sustained injuries during the confrontation before being transported to a hospital for treatment. He was booked at the police department after his release from the hospital.
Two juveniles suffered non-life-threatening injuries and were transported to a local hospital for evaluation after seeking help during the incident. Fall River Reporter reported that the two juveniles sustained their minor lacerations while actively trying to disarm Yee in order to prevent further harm to the rest of their group. Police reportedly commended the youths' quick actions, which the outlet noted likely prevented more severe injuries before officers arrived on scene.
A Historic Park With a History of Late-Night Patrol Checks
Kennedy Park is no ordinary patch of grass — the 57-acre public park was originally designed in 1871 by landscape architects Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, and its central stone pavilion sits on a hilltop overlooking Mount Hope Bay, according to the Cultural Landscape Foundation. It's a major recreation hub in southern Fall River, and evening gatherings near the pavilion are common. But the same pavilion area has periodically drawn police attention: the Fall River Reporter has previously documented that officers perform routine checks there due to recurring neighborhood complaints about trespassing, drug activity, and late-hour disturbances, since city parks typically close by 9 p.m.
This isn't the first time Kennedy Park has landed in headlines this summer. In July, a local care worker was charged with assault and battery on a disabled person after a recorded altercation near the park went public and drew significant community scrutiny, with the Patrol Bureau investigating after the video circulated online, as per Hoodline.
Part of a Wider Pattern of Knife Violence in Fall River
Tuesday's incident also lands just two days after another public knife attack elsewhere in the city. Fall River police arrested a 56-year-old man for armed assault with intent to murder after he allegedly slashed another man near the city's SRTA bus terminal, an attack that left the victim with severe head and shoulder lacerations requiring trauma center care, Hoodline previously reported.
The department has also been leaning on regional partnerships to combat violent crime more broadly. Fall River officers joined the FBI Metro Boston Gang Task Force and Massachusetts State Police this summer for Operation Summer Heat 2.0, a multi-agency initiative targeting violent crime across southeastern Massachusetts that resulted in 40 arrests, per the department. Bristol County law enforcement has focused heavily on weapon offenses in recent months, a backdrop that includes other recent Fall River knife cases, including a February double stabbing on Walnut Street and last October's stabbing of former Fall River Mayor Will Flanagan on Hartwell Street.
Legal Exposure and What Comes Next
Under Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 265, assault by means of a dangerous weapon is a felony punishable by up to five years in state prison or two and a half years in a house of correction, while assault and battery with a dangerous weapon can carry up to 10 years in state prison, according to the Serpa Law Office. Whether an assault involving a weapon like a pocketknife draws the more severe charge often depends on whether physical contact occurred and the degree of injury inflicted.
Any charges against Yee would be handled at Fall River District Court on Rock Street, which serves Fall River and the surrounding Bristol County communities for arraignments and bail hearings. It remains unclear what formal charges Yee will face, what his bail status will be, or how the two injured juveniles are recovering — questions that are expected to be answered as the case moves through the courts.
