Widow of deputy fire chief killed in police shootout sues New Bedford

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The widow of the late New Bedford deputy fire chief who died of “suicide by cop” in a shootout outside a Fairhaven bar has filed a lawsuit against the City of New Bedford, Mayor Jon Mitchell, and three unnamed “John Does” inside City Hall. 

Paul Coderre Jr. died on Dec. 29, 2023, after making “fatalistic” comments and discharging a firearm in an altercation with local police. Jane Coderre, his wife, has filed a lawsuit that alleges the City of New Bedford and its mayor engaged in civil conspiracy, intentional infliction of emotional distress, defamation, invasion of privacy, and other civil charges. 

The lawsuit deals not with the evening of Coderre’s death, but a years-long saga of workplace injury and legal battles that led to the firefighter’s termination and, the lawsuit alleges, his ultimate demise.

The former deputy fire chief told police that “he would either shoot himself or make officers shoot him,” according to a District Attorney report of the standoff. Coderre was shot and killed by fellow first responders in a shootout, during which one Acushnet police officer was struck by a bullet and taken to the hospital.  

But Coderre’s troubles, the lawsuit suggests, date back to a freak car accident in 2016 and the city’s firing of him in 2022. 

Jane Coderre’s attorneys claim that the city and mayor wrongfully terminated Paul Coderre and engaged in a “smear campaign” that claimed the third-generation firefighter lied about the extent of his on-the-job injuries to receive benefits and a retirement package. 

The “false allegations against Coderre had the intended effect of driving him to a sense of hopelessness and frustration,” wrote attorneys for Coderre in the lawsuit, filed Dec. 23. The news that the city would seek to appeal the Massachusetts Civil Service Commission’s finding that Coderre was blameless, attorneys say, ultimately “caused him to suffer a psychotic episode and resulting psychological and emotional breakdown.” 

On Monday, New Bedford City Solicitor Eric Jaikes provided the following statement: “The complaint is without merit. The termination of Paul Coderre was appropriate and legally justified under the circumstances. The City intends to vigorously defend this claim in court and pursue all of its legal defenses to the groundless claims set forth in the plaintiffs’ complaint.”

The lawsuit, which may not come before a judge for several years, seeks $1 million in damages for the estate of Paul Coderre and for his wife, Jane.

The lawsuit does not include a charge of “wrongful death,” a charge that Jane Coderre’s attorneys mentioned in an August letter to the city. However, that letter noted a requirement to file claims of negligence (which includes wrongful death claims) six months before starting litigation. That means Coderre could file separate litigation for wrongful death as soon as mid-February. Coderre’s attorneys declined to provide comment about their litigation strategy. 

The standoff

Earlier on the day of his death, Dec. 29, 2023, Coderre had learned the city would continue legal action against him that alleged he lied about the severity of his on-the-job injuries and was “putting on an act” in front of doctors to receive benefits and a retirement package. In other words, Coderre learned that a two-year saga, full of public hearings and media reports about his alleged fraud and secret recordings made by private investigators, would continue. And after almost 30 years as a firefighter, Coderre’s pension was again at risk. 

Coderre began drinking heavily inside Fairhaven’s Bayside Lounge, ordering rounds of shots and acting aggressively, according to witness interviews. At one point, he toasted another fire chief who had died of suicide. 

Outside the bar, witnesses said he punched the window of his car and started altercations with friends. A cellphone video showed him pushing a friend into the side of his car, followed by the sound of glass falling. According to testimony from his wife, Coderre yelled out, “I’m gonna die today.”

When police arrived, a 30-minute standoff began. A report from the Bristol District Attorney’s office describes the recording from a camera mounted inside a Fairhaven police cruiser:

During the standoff, Mr. Coderre spoke to officers. He told the officers that “there is no coming back from this” and “I don’t want to hurt anyone.” Mr. Coderre told officers that he had a Ruger 9MM on his right side. Mr. Coderre was enraged that someone called the police, and he made repeated suicidal statements…. Repeated requests for Mr. Coderre to lay on the ground, put up his hands and surrender his firearm were refused…. Mr. Coderre told the officers that “he’s not stupid” and that “he knows he’s not going home from here.” 

Eventually, nonlethal tools were engaged, such as a taser and beanbag pellets, but they had little effect. Coderre began firing his gun “directed at officers,” and those officers returned fire, killing Coderre. The time from the first taser deployment to Coderre falling to the ground was approximately 12 seconds.

The Bristol County District Attorney’s office found the shooting was justified in a report released Aug. 8.

The injuries and surgeries that started it all

Coderre joined the New Bedford Fire Department in 1993. He rose through the ranks, according to the Massachusetts Civil Service Commission’s findings, and became a deputy fire chief in 2012. In New Bedford, two deputy fire chiefs report to one fire chief and can serve as acting chief in his absence. 

In April 2016, Coderre was on his way to a routine second-alarm fire in New Bedford when his fire department vehicle was T-boned. The wreck caused a disc protrusion that required physical therapy, pain injections, and eventually surgery. 

Coderre returned to full duty service, but in 2019, according to the Civil Service Commission report, he reinjured the same discs in his back while performing work-related duties. Again he required surgery. Months after that second surgery, Coderre was found to have “chronic back pain” attributable to “degenerative endplate changes” at the injured section of his spine. And a few months after that, he was diagnosed with severe degeneration of his hip that required a total replacement. 

Doctors’ notes over the next year tell of repeated falls, continued hip pain, and new pains, such as in Coderre’s left foot, according to the Civil Service Commission. 

During his recovery in 2021, after the second back surgery but before the hip surgery, Coderre took a weeklong vacation to Florida. According to the lawsuit, his physician had “expressly approved physical activity such as walking beaches that would be beneficial to Coderre’s recovery.” 

But photos on Facebook of the trip, including those that showed him fishing, made it back to the city’s human resources office. That office reached out to Coderre and told him “the optics were not good.” According to the Civil Service Commission report, Coderre had a negative reaction to this counsel — so negative, in fact, that a New Bedford human resources official testified that it was “fishy.” 

Not long after the incident with the Facebook photos, according to the lawsuit, the City of New Bedford hired a private investigator through a third party to look into Coderre. That private investigator took videos of Coderre as he stopped by the firehouse, went to Lowe’s, and did household chores. 

One of the videos has become the centerpiece of the city’s argument that Coderre was misleading doctors and the city about the severity of his conditions. The video was shot from the street outside the home of a friend of Coderre’s, according to the Civil Service Commission, and depicts the firefighter slowly unloading a large smoker grill from the bed of his pickup truck. 

Mayor Jon Mitchell told an investigative reporter from NBC10 in December 2023 that this video is evidence that “speaks for itself” about Coderre’s ability to perform his duties, saying that it showed he was “strong.” But the Civil Service Commission described the same video as showing Coderre having “apparent difficulty.”

At the time, the city required Coderre to receive an independent medical evaluation. The doctor who conducted it was a semi-retired orthopedic surgeon, George McManama, and initially found Coderre to be unable to perform his duties. Afterwards, however, the investigators sent McManama the video, and he changed his description without reevaluating Coderre. 

In the Civil Service Commission’s report, a second medical opinion found that “Given Mr. Coderre’s physical limitations due to his permanent neurological deficit… I consider him a danger and a liability to his co-firefighters and victims should he be required to engage in life saving activities.”

But this video was enough for the city and the mayor to terminate Coderre. In a January 2022 letter, Mayor Mitchell told Coderre that his “alleged” workplace injuries were “at variance with what you told Dr. McManama… regarding your level of physical disability,” citing the surveillance videos. 

Email Colin Hogan at chogan@newbedfordlight.org

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