Updated at 11:02 p.m.
BRATTLEBORO — Authorities have charged a local woman with second-degree murder after an unidentified person was killed in an ax attack at this town’s Morningside House shelter.
Brattleboro Police received a call Monday just before 9:30 a.m. about an “assault in progress” at the 30-bed Royal Road facility a short walk from downtown, Chief Norma Hardy said.
There, authorities found a body yet to be publicly identified pending notification of next of kin.
Police arrested Zaaina Asra Zakirrah Mahvish-Jammeh, 38, who is being held without bail until an arraignment scheduled for Tuesday at Windham District Court.
“The investigation is active and ongoing,” Assistant Chief Jeremy Evans said in a written statement Monday night. “No further information will be released at this time.”
Local authorities and Vermont State Police’s Crime Scene Search Team worked earlier in the day alongside Peter Elwell, a former Brattleboro town manager turned interim deputy executive director of the shelter’s operator, Groundworks Collaborative.
Shelter residents were relocated elsewhere as neighbors from the 166-unit Morningside Commons condominium community looked on.
Monday’s homicide is the fourth in Brattleboro in the past year, following one in July 2022 on Elliot Street, a second in August 2022 on Putney Road and a third last Thursday on Birge Street.
“There’s no danger to the public at this time,” Hardy said of the latest killing.