Three arrested for returning to Leominster officer’s detail and threatening to “f—” his daughter over friend’s arrest

LEOMINSTER — On Monday, June 1, 2026, Leominster Police Officer Matthew Chagnon was working a private overnight detail in a department issued detail uniform and a fully marked Leominster Police Department cruiser on Main Street (Route 13) at Tolman Avenue.

(The account and quotations in this article were sourced from the printed Personnel Narrative of Officer Matthew Chagnon and do not reflect any political perspective or personal opinion of News Link Live, which is strictly a business entity.)

“At approximately 12:11 a.m., I was sitting in the cruiser blocking the shoulder of the road (Main Street) for the private company I was working for when I heard a loud scraping, dragging noise,” Officer Chagnon said.

Officer Chagnon said he looked to his left, out of the driver’s side window, and observed a white truck approaching him on Tolman Avenue as it headed toward Main Street.

“I immediately noticed the vehicle was dragging something but because it was dark I could not see until the vehicle turned right onto Main Street, heading inbound that the rear end was heavily damaged and was dragging the exhaust system, it was apparent that this vehicle was freshly involved in a collision of some sorts,” Officer Chagnon said.

Officer Chagnon said he also noticed a dark-colored sedan behind the truck and observed at least three people inside. He believed the vehicles were traveling together because they were driving close to one another and few other vehicles were on the road at that hour.

“I turned my vehicle around and activated my blue lights to conduct a motor vehicle stop and well-being check on the white truck, as it appeared to have heavy damage to the rear end and was obviously not stopping to report it,” Officer Chagnon said.

When he activated the blue emergency lights on his cruiser, Officer Chagnon said the dark-colored sedan pulled over, but he passed it an attempt to catch up with the white truck.

“I noticed the white truck took a right onto Kinsman Avenue (this street is a dead end and not traveled by many vehicles), I pulled behind the vehicle and radioed dispatch to send me a patrol unit,” Officer Chagnon said. He added that the plate on the white truck, a 2026 Hyundai Santa Cruz, was registered to MAG Retail Holdings-HRT LLC, which does business as McGovern Hyundai Route 2, an auto dealership in Leominster.

“I observed the driver put both his hand out the window which I thought was odd given the circumstances,” Officer Chagnon said. “I ordered the driver to step out of the vehicle and come back towards me, once contact was made, I made sure there were no other parties in said vehicle, which there were not.”

Officer Chagnon said that while he spoke with the driver, who was identified as 19-year-old Luis Lourenco, three men approached the cruiser, began heckling him, and recording him with their cell phones. (Officer Chagnon later identified the three men as Lourenco’s friends.)

“I advised them to leave if they had nothing to do with this incident, and they all stated they could stand there if they wished because it is a public sidewalk,” Officer Chagnon said. “Officer [Joseph] Rydzefski arrived and spoke with the operator. Luis advised he was involved in an accident on Route 2 but could not tell us where. Massachusetts State Police Trooper Jill McGrath responded to investigate.”

Officer Chagnon said two of the men who had been heckling him walked away in the inbound direction, while the third remained.

“Trooper McGrath eventually made an arrest from this incident. The male party who stuck around and observed Luis get arrested eventually left on foot inbound on Main Street,” Officer Chagnon said. “While I was turning around to head back to my private detail job, I observed the same vehicle pick up the male party walking by the Dollar Store. The parties in this vehicle were screaming out the window telling me to go f*ck myself, etc.”

Officer Chagnon said he obtained the vehicle’s plate number before it drove off and radioed it to dispatch so it could be associated with the earlier incident. Dispatch informed him that the registration, which came back to a black 2011 Ford Fusion, was listed as revoked for insurance-related reasons.

After returning to his detail at Main Street and Tolman Avenue, Officer Chagnon heard Officer Rydzefski report that he was back with Massachusetts State Police on Kinsman Avenue, where the three men were on foot and mouthing off to the trooper while the trooper waited for the white truck to be towed. Officer Rydzefski cleared the scene shortly afterward.

“Approximately 10-15 minutes later, [at 1:36 a.m.], while sitting in my cruiser at my detail with my
emergency lights activated in the right shoulder of the outbound lane on Main Street at Tolman Avenue,
a vehicle pulled up next to me and stopped,” Officer Chagnon said. “My driver’s side window was open; I observed a vehicle with at least three occupants in it.”

The front-seat passenger and a rear passenger were yelling profanities at Officer Chagnon while pointing and flailing their arms out of a window in his direction, and they appeared to be holding something.

“I was unsure if [they were] weapon[s] or not at the time, but later concluded it was most likely just their cell phones as they were most likely videotaping the incident as they were doing the same previously,” Officer Chagnon said. Adding, “Things I could hear them yelling were ‘f*ck you,’ ‘I’m going to f*ck your daughter,’ and things along those lines.

Officer Chagnon stated that the individuals returning to his detail and making those threatening comments—after witnessing and learning of their friend’s prior arrest—was an intentional act. The suspects threatened Officer Chagnon in retaliation for his official duties, and their comments included a threat to commit a crime against the officer’s family, constituting Intimidation of a Witness/Police Officer under Chapter 268, Section 13B.

Officer Chagnon said the vehicle then took off toward Day Street. He added that while the vehicle was stopped and the occupants were yelling at him, Verizon employees who were working nearby stopped working to watch what was going on (which amounted to a charge of disturbing the peace).

Knowing the vehicle’s registration was revoked, Officer Chagnon activated his cruiser’s emergency blue lights and initiated a traffic stop.

“The vehicle veered right and pulled over in front of 7 Day Street,” Officer Chagnon said. “I requested additional units to respond.”

Officer Chagnon said Officer Oswaldo Ramos, who was working the same detail, responded along with Officer Rydzefski, Officer William Taylor and Sergeant John Bouchard.

“The operator of the vehicle was identified as the registered owner, Rodrigo Flores-Velazquez,” Officer Chagnon said.

According to police, Rodrigo A. Flores-Velazquez, 24, is a resident of Leominster, MA.

Officer Chagnon said he issued Flores-Velazquez a Massachusetts Uniform Citation for operating a motor vehicle after its registration had been revoked for insurance-related reasons and gave him the citation in hand.

“I requested a tow due to the status of the vehicle,” Officer Chagnon said. “I ordered the driver out of the vehicle as he would need to exit to tow the vehicle.”

Officer Chagnon said Flores-Velazquez refused to get out of the vehicle despite being instructed several times to do so.

“Rodrigo committed the common law offense (interfering with a police officer) by not getting out of the vehicle to allow me to conduct my duties of towing the motor vehicle,” Officer Chagnon said.

Officer Chagnon said he and Officer Taylor used contact-control techniques in an attempt to remove Flores-Velazquez from the vehicle, but Flores-Velazquez stiffened his torso and arms to prevent them from doing so.

Officer Chagnon said that once Rodrigo was out of the vehicle, he and Officer Taylor had to place him in a prone position to take him into custody.

Officer Chagnon said that while he and Officer Taylor attempted to handcuff Rodrigo, the two passengers — later identified as Michael Castro-Hernandez and Mauricio Barcelo — exited the vehicle without being instructed to do so and began yelling and behaving aggressively, leading the officers to believe they might try to interfere with the arrest.

“Other officers on scene were able to keep them back and prevent this from happening; but in doing so, initially, Officer Taylor and I thought they were going to jump in to prevent the arrest. So for this reason, Michael Castro-Hernandez and Mauricio Barcelo will both have a charge of (265/13A – Assault), assault,” Officer Chagnon said. “They were also the two parties who previously told me to ‘f*ck off’ and that they were going to ‘f*ck my daughter.'”

The vehicle was towed by E.T. Cote Auto Exchange and the plates were seized by police for destruction. All three men were taken into custody and transported to the Leominster Police Department for booking.

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Disclaimer: If you are wondering why the incident in this story took place in June, that’s because I had to file FOIA request(s) to obtain the court documents. FOIAs are time-consuming.

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