A gunfight on Birch Street sent a vehicle and a home riddled with bullet holes on Wednesday evening, and within 24 hours Fall River police had four suspects in custody, including a 16-year-old boy and a young child found inside the apartment where the weapons were stashed. No one was physically hurt in the shooting itself, but the fallout has produced a stack of firearm and child-endangerment charges that police say show what coordinated investigative work can accomplish.
Officers were first called to the area near Abbott Court around 6 p.m. on August 19 after reports of gunfire, according to the Fall River Reporter, before responders traced the disturbance to the 300 block of Birch Street. There, agency members found a vehicle parked in front of a residence that had been struck by gunfire, and officers observed what they described as evidence consistent with gunshot holes in the front of the home itself, according to a Facebook post from the City of Fall River Police Department.
Detective Clautino Monteiro, who led the Major Crimes Division investigation, tracked the suspects' movements and reviewed video surveillance in the hours after the shooting. Investigators determined that the suspects had been picked up from the scene by an Uber, according to the department's account. The intended victim of the shooting was described by police as less than cooperative with investigators, leaving a gap in the public account of what triggered the gunfire.
Search Warrant Leads to Sunset Hill Apartment
Members of the Major Crimes Division executed a search warrant on August 20 at a residence in the 100 block of Sunset Hill, in the city's South End. Investigators located four people inside: Kamron Sneed, Kamari Stuart, Nevaeh Iadicola, and a 16-year-old juvenile, along with a young child. Police said other participants in the investigation had identified Sneed and the teenager as matching the physical characteristics of two people believed involved in the shooting.
Inside the apartment, investigators located a .22-caliber semi-automatic firearm concealed beneath a living-room couch, per the department's statement. The Sunset Hill development where the search warrant was executed is a federally subsidized public housing complex operated by the Fall River Housing Authority and holds 354 apartments, making it one of the city's largest family housing sites. It is not the first time the complex has drawn police attention this year — in February, officers responded to a shooting inside a Sunset Hill apartment that left a dog fatally wounded, a case Hoodline previously reported led to felony weapons warrants for a 36-year-old suspect.
Charges Range From Ghost Guns to Child Endangerment
All four adults and the juvenile now face an array of firearm charges. Kamron Sneed was charged with assault and battery by discharging a firearm, discharge within 500 feet of a building, carrying a loaded firearm in public, carrying a firearm without a license, and a related firearm offense. Kamari Stuart was charged with carrying a firearm without a license, carrying a loaded firearm without a license, possessing a large-capacity firearm, possessing a large-capacity feeding device, and receiving an untraceable firearm.
Nevaeh Iadicola faces the most charges connected to the child found at the scene: reckless endangerment of a child, possessing ammunition without an FID card, possessing a large-capacity feeding device, receiving an untraceable firearm, possessing a large-capacity firearm, possessing a firearm without an FID card, and improperly storing a large-capacity firearm near a minor. The 16-year-old juvenile was charged with receiving an untraceable firearm, carrying a loaded firearm without a license, attempted assault and battery with a firearm, vandalizing property, firearm discharge striking a building, possession of a large-capacity feeding device, carrying a firearm without a license, firearm discharge within 500 feet of a dwelling, possessing an untraceable firearm during a felony, and possession of a large-capacity firearm during a felony.
The untraceable firearm charges stem from Massachusetts Chapter 135 of the Acts of 2024, a state law that imposes strict criminal penalties for possessing, assembling, or transferring so-called ghost guns and requires serial numbers on all frames and receivers, according to a summary published by Mass.gov. The 2024 law broadened the legal definition of a firearm to cover un-serialized 3D-printed weapons and build kits.
Chief Credits Multi-Unit Cooperation
Fall River Police Chief J.T. Hoar commended the Major Crimes Division and the Community Action and Suppression Team, known as C.A.S.T., saying the investigation demonstrated what the entire department can accomplish by working together, according to the department's Facebook statement. Multiple bureaus and divisions collaborated throughout the case, police said, describing the swift arrests as a product of that coordination.
C.A.S.T. was formally established as a specialized proactive unit during a departmental reorganization to focus on neighborhood enforcement, illegal weapons, and gang activity, according to minutes from a Fall River City Council joint meeting, and it works alongside the Major Crimes Division on targeted operations. The unit isn't new to ghost-gun cases: in June, C.A.S.T. detectives executed a search warrant on Boutwell Street that recovered a 9mm ghost gun fitted with a 31-round magazine and a machine-gun conversion switch, per the department's Facebook page.
Detective Monteiro, who joined the department in December 2022 as part of an eight-officer recruit class after graduating from the MPTC Plymouth Police Academy, led the investigation that connected the Birch Street shooting scene to the Sunset Hill arrests. Police said they will continue working to identify anyone else responsible for the violence, and pledged to remove illegal firearms from city streets and hold those responsible accountable.
Part of a Broader Enforcement Push
The Birch Street case lands amid a citywide push against illegal weapons. Fall River recorded an 11.2% decrease in overall violent crime and a 12.5% drop in confirmed shootings during the first half of 2026 compared to the same period last year, according to the department's first mid-year public safety report cited by the Fall River Reporter. At the same time, the department logged a 23.1% surge in total arrests and a 50% increase in illegal firearm seizures citywide over that span, the outlet reported.
The broader gun-trafficking picture in Massachusetts remains concentrated in the state's larger cities. More than a quarter of all crime guns recovered statewide in 2023 were traced to Boston, Springfield, and Worcester, according to ATF trace data analyzed by Everytown Research & Policy, which found that state authorities recovered 3,487 crime guns in total that year. Open questions remain in the Birch Street case, including how the 16-year-old's juvenile court proceedings will unfold and whether ballistics testing on the recovered .22-caliber handgun will tie it to other recent firearm incidents in the city.
