FALL RIVER Fall River police are investigating a reported assault with a machete that sent a 35-year-old man to Rhode Island Hospital with head injuries Thursday night, Oct. 15, Deputy Police Chief Barden Castro said. Separately, two men were sentenced in cases from 2025: one in a cocaine investigation that seized about 1 kilogram of the drug, and one for an armed and masked robbery at the city's bus station.
The details below come from Fall River police, court records and the Bristol County District Attorney's office, whose accounts Fall River Reporter and NBC 10 News carried, and from the police department's own Facebook post on the cocaine arrest. South Coast 360 does not name the people charged or sentenced in these items.
Reported machete assault near Brayton Avenue
Police are investigating a reported assault by means of a machete, Castro said Thursday night. The injured man was alert and gave responding officers an initial statement, he said.
The two people involved may know each other, Castro said. Detectives were still working to find where the assault happened, which was reported to be near Brayton Avenue and Route 24, and details were limited in the first hours of the investigation, he said.
As of Monday morning, neither report said anyone had been arrested, and the police department had posted nothing about the case on its Facebook page.
Sentence in a 1 kilogram cocaine case
A 49-year-old man was sentenced Friday, Oct. 16, for possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, according to Fall River police and court records. South Coast 360 will add the length of the sentence once we confirm it in the court record.
He was arrested Tuesday, June 10, 2025, after a joint narcotics investigation, the department said in a Facebook post on the arrest. Investigators seized about 1 kilogram of cocaine, and he was charged then with trafficking in cocaine, 200 grams or more, according to the post.
The investigation brought together the department's Community Action and Suppression Team and its drone unit, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Massachusetts State Police, Westport police and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, police said. Task Force Officer Edmond Desmarais led the case, according to the department.
Prison term for a robbery at the bus station
A 48-year-old Fall River man was sentenced to 7 to 10 years in prison for an armed and masked robbery at the SRTA bus station on April 17, 2025, District Attorney Thomas Quinn III's office announced.
A man at the station told police a masked man with a knife robbed him, the district attorney's office said. The masked man jabbed him with the knife, took $20 and left on a bicycle, according to the office.
Police found the 48-year-old using surveillance video and by matching the description of his clothes and the bicycle, the office said. He has prior convictions for armed and masked robbery and had served state prison time before, according to the district attorney's office.
What happens next
The reported machete assault remains under investigation by Fall River detectives. When the court records for the two sentencings can be read, South Coast 360 will check them and correct anything that differs. Because this report does not name the two men, we did not seek comment from them or their lawyers.
Label: Reported by us, from the town's posted records.
How we verified this
When we checked Monday morning we found no official record of the machete case or of either sentencing: the newest release on the Bristol County District Attorney's website was from April 2025, we found no post on any of the three on the Fall River Police Department's Facebook page, and court records could not be searched without a CAPTCHA. The department's Facebook post on the June 10, 2025 cocaine arrest is the official record we read, and it is the source for the arrest date, the original charge, the agencies and the lead investigator. Every other fact comes from two separate news reports that each attribute it to an official source: Fall River police, court records or the district attorney's office. Facts that only one of the two reports carried were left out. We will check the court records and correct anything that differs. We left out the names of the two men sentenced and of the injured man. We checked each date and weekday against a calendar. Not heard: no one was contacted.
Corrections
No corrections to this story. If something here is wrong, tell us. Every correction is dated on the story and listed in our public log.
Sources (7)
- City of Fall River Police Department, Facebook post: Joint narcotics investigation results in seizure of one kilogram of cocaine and arrest (post on the June 10, 2025 arrest)The department's own post on the June 10, 2025 arrest, found by Facebook search on the department page (Facebook hides the post date and permalink): about 1 kilogram, the trafficking charge, the agencies and units, the lead investigator. Read Oct. 19, 2026.
- Fall River Police investigating after machete assault leaves victim bloodied (Oct. 15, 2026)Fall River Reporter. Deputy Chief Barden Castro on the reported assault, the hospital, the initial statement, the possible relationship, the location, limited details. Read Oct. 19, 2026.
- Fall River police investigate reported machete assault (Oct. 15, 2026)NBC 10 News (WJAR). The same account from Castro. Read Oct. 19, 2026.
- Fall River Police, DEA, MSP, Westport PD, USPIS operation leads to jail sentence after 1 kilo of cocaine seized (Oct. 16, 2026)Fall River Reporter, citing Fall River police and court records. Age, sentence Friday, the charge, June 2025 arrest, about 1 kilogram, the agencies. Read Oct. 19, 2026.
- Man pleads guilty to cocaine trafficking in Fall River (Oct. 17, 2026)NBC 10 News (WJAR), citing the Fall River Police Department (photo credited to the department, Oct. 16). Age, sentence Friday, the charge, June 2025 arrest, the agencies. Read Oct. 19, 2026.
- Fall River man previously convicted of armed robbery sentenced to prison after robbing man at bus terminal with knife (Oct. 19, 2026)Fall River Reporter, from the Bristol County District Attorney's announcement. Age, town, sentence, the April 17, 2025 robbery at the SRTA station, the knife, $20, the bicycle, video and clothing, prior convictions. Read Oct. 19, 2026.
- Man sentenced to prison time for masked armed robbery in Fall River (Oct. 19, 2026)NBC 10 News (WJAR), citing the Bristol County District Attorney's office. The same facts. Read Oct. 19, 2026.