A 49-year-old mother was shot dead in the kitchen of her family’s home in Reading, Massachusetts, while her 13-year-old son was inside the house. Her husband found her body when he got home from work just after midnight Thursday.
Their older son, 22-year-old Ryan Hanafin, was gone, and so was his car. By Thursday afternoon, Vermont State Police had him in custody. Prosecutors are treating the killing of Andria Hanafin as domestic violence.
What happened in the Reading shooting?
Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan said Matthew Hanafin called 911 around 12:38 a.m. Thursday after finding his wife dead in the kitchen of their Center Avenue home. She had an apparent gunshot wound. The couple’s 13-year-old son was home and unharmed. He told investigators he last saw his mother alive around 5 p.m. Wednesday, CBS Boston reported.
Police named Ryan Hanafin, who lived in the home, a person of interest and said he should be considered armed and dangerous. He legally owned several guns and had a license to carry, which Reading police suspended Thursday morning. His black Dodge Charger was last seen heading toward Tewksbury on I-93 around 7:25 p.m. Wednesday, NBC News reported.
Where was Ryan Hanafin arrested?
Vermont State Police stopped him around 2:30 p.m. Thursday on Route 100, south of the Sugarbush Access Road in Warren. He was held without bail as a fugitive from justice and was due to be arraigned Friday afternoon in Vermont Superior Court. He’ll be sent back to Massachusetts later to face charges there, WCAX reported.
What have prosecutors said about the motive?
Not much yet. Ryan said the case looks like domestic violence, “although not the traditional domestic violence situation that we think of.” She added: “It is a moment of reflection about the presence of guns in a home during an alleged dispute.” She said Ryan Hanafin had no known history of mental health issues.
A family friend, Elizabeth Coppla, told WBZ-TV that Andria Hanafin “loved her family” and that “the world is a much darker place without her in it.” The Hanafins also have a daughter, who was away at college.
The BeezLoop Take
We don’t know yet why this happened, and it’s too early to pretend otherwise. But the district attorney put her finger on the part we can talk about now. A gun in the home of someone in crisis turns a family argument into a killing in seconds, and a 13-year-old was in the house when it happened.
Massachusetts has some of the strictest gun laws in the country, including a “red flag” law that lets family members or police ask a court to take guns from someone who’s a danger. Those laws only work if someone sees the danger coming and uses them.
The open question: were there warning signs anyone could have acted on?
Also on BeezLoop: a Bronx man is charged with pushing a mother and baby from a 15th-floor balcony, and prosecutors say in-laws were lying in wait for a Times executive.
Sources: CBS Boston · NBC News / NBC Boston · Boston.com · WCAX · CBS Boston (video)
