BEDFORD, MASS. (WHDH) - A 24-year-old Bedford woman is facing charges after she allegedly killed her mother and father in a double shooting Thursday morning, the Middlesex District Attorney announced.
DA Marian Ryan in a press conference said police first responded to the scene on Washington Street in Bedford after receiving a 911 call near 9 a.m. The caller said the woman had reentered a home where she was living and confessed to the shooting.
When the caller went outside, Ryan said, they found the woman’s 56-year-old mother and a 56-year-old father injured in a car on an adjacent lawn. Ryan said the woman’s mother was pronounced dead at the scene. Her father was taken to a hospital where he was also pronounced dead, according to Ryan’s office.
Ryan said authorities recovered a gun at the scene and arrested the woman, Jessica Cavallaro, in connection with the shooting.
Ryan said Cavallaro lived in the area with her significant other and did not have a license to carry a gun.
“These are horrific incidents of domestic violence,” Ryan said. “They also point to what we talk about all the time, which is the prevalence of guns and the availability of firearms.”
“Many of the incidents that we’ve had in the last few weeks or the last few months have involved firearms in the hands of people who should not have them,” she continued.
Cavallaro appeared in court Thursday afternoon on charges including murder and assault and battery with a deadly weapon causing serious injury.
Prosecutors said Cavallaro lived with her boyfriend and told his parents Thursday morning she was having a panic attack.
“This defendant had gone to work that day as normal. She came home unexpectedly. Her parents were going to take her out to breakfast. She got in the back of the vehicle. She used a firearm. She shot both of them in their heads. She came back in the house and announced that she had killed her parents,” prosecutors said.
Washington Street itself remained sealed off early Thursday afternoon while investigators continued to work.
Bedford Police Chief John Fisher said community members should expect to see a high level of police activity and road closures around Washington Street in the coming hours.
Neighbors said they were shocked by the day’s events.
“It’s a quiet town, a quiet neighborhood, so it’s not something you would expect,” one neighbor said.
“I think it will be difficult for children to come back and people and families to do their walks and ride their bikes, walk their dogs,” another neighbor said.
Speaking with 7NEWS, the victims’ landlord said he was heartbroken by the loss of a couple he has known for two decades.
“It’s way shocking,” he said. “It’s beyond words.”
Cavallaro was brought into Concord District Court Thursday afternoon and did not respond to questions from reporters while being brought into the courthouse.
She was ordered held without bail and her next court date is scheduled for Aug. 20.
This is a developing story; stay with 7NEWS on-air and online for the latest updates.
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