Resident describes stabbing, calls for better security and maintenance at Cartel Heights

Robert Thallow, a resident of Cartel Heights, told the Fall River Housing Authority at its public meeting that he and other residents helped a man who arrived at the building after being stabbed and shot.

"It didn't happen at Cartel. He ran up from — everybody must know the shakers," Thallow said, identifying the nearby home where the injured man had come from. He credited Clarissa Borges, who is training as a nurse, and another resident, Scott, a former trauma nurse, for helping stabilize the man until emergency responders arrived: "If it wasn't for them too, we'd be having a different con discussion now because he wouldn't have made it."

Thallow said the person arrested in the case had been asked to leave the building the week before after loitering near the elevator. He told the authority the Cartel/Cattell property has been a recurring source of trouble and that residents have been struggling to keep unauthorized people off the site, especially on weekends.

The resident pressed officials for better access controls and a clearer maintenance chain of command for seniors. "There's I don't get a chain of command because you can't expect an 80 year old woman to go down to the basement and knock on a maintenance man's door," Thallow said. He also reported problems with the building intercom: when residents answer, "they cannot hear them," he said, and added that the intercom difficulty may be one way unauthorized people gain entrance.

Thallow raised outstanding maintenance items he said affect mobility and safety, including approved tub cut modifications that he said remain unfinished for specific residents: "I know there's still a couple that really need them. Like, for instance, Laurie, who's here today, she's waiting, and mister Price, them are the 2 that are waiting that have been approved that I know of."

Housing authority staff and a board member agreed to attend a tenant meeting on Wednesday at 4 p.m. to review work-order procedures, tub-cut status and security protocol for the building. The authority also invited facility staff to the meeting to explain work-order and access procedures.

Thallow closed by urging residents and officials to continue resident-led events that foster social connection and vigilance; he said Sunday dinners and card games helped build that community oversight but that recent violence had disrupted those activities.

The concerns raised in public comment prompted the authority to schedule a follow-up tenant meeting and to send facility staff to address work-order and intercom issues, according to remarks during the meeting.