Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Mechanics Cooperative Bank
On Wednesday, federal prosecutors indicted Fall River, Massachusetts, Police Officer Nicholas M. Hoar for violating civil rights and making false reports after he allegedly beat a man in custody with a baton in the winter of 2020 and failed to report it.
A little over three years before that incident, Hoar shot and killed 19-year-old Larry Ruiz Barreto while breaking up a drag race—claiming that he feared for his life after the man accelerated and pushed the officer onto the hood of a car. Hoar was cleared in that case by local prosecutors who concluded it was a justified use of force.
Now, Ruiz Barreto’s father is calling Hoar’s federal indictment the tip of the iceberg on local police misconduct—and demanding prosecutors reopen a criminal probe of a nightmare he witnessed in person, and for which he is suing Hoar in federal court.