Naomi Bell Plymouth Connecticut woman arrested shooting her two children, fatally killing 15 year teen girl, critically wounding 7 year old boy. No known motive.
A Connecticut woman is alleged to have shot at her two children, killing one and critically wounding another according to reports.
Naomi Bell of Plymouth upon her arrest this weekend was charged with murder and attempted murder after shooting and killing her 15 year old teen daughter and critically wounding her 7-year-old son.
The 43 year old woman was being held at the Niantic Correctional Center on a $2.5 million bond. Her arraignment is scheduled for Monday, the Hartford Courant reports.
Another son wasn’t at the family’s home at the time of the shooting, but her husband, Owen Bell, was there and was not injured, Connecticut State Police said, according to the Courant.
Plymouth police were called to the scene at about 7 p.m. Friday when someone at the home called 911, according to state police spokeswoman Christine Jeltema. Responding officers found the siblings seriously wounded, Jeltema said. The 15 year old teen girl was pronounced dead at the scene, and the boy was taken for treatment to Connecticut Children’s in Hartford.
A community left reeling and seeking answers
While authorities declined to publicly identify the victims, boston.com cited Sherri Turner, Plymouth schools’ interim superintendent as saying that the slain student was enrolled at Terryville high school, and the injured sibling was enrolled in elementary school.
‘We are devastated by this unthinkable tragedy,’ Turner wrote in a letter to local parents adding that counseling would be available over the weekend for families and school staff.
State police said that Bell suffered from mental illness, but they have released no information about what led to the shooting.
Taylor Wells, who lives next door to the Bells, told the Courant he was eating dinner when police arrived.
‘She was always pleasant’
‘I didn’t hear any gunshots,’ the neighbor said. ‘First thing I hear is all of the sirens from the cop cars and the ambulances, and then I see them carry the girl out on a stretcher and take her away.’
Wells said the family had lived in the neighborhood for years, although he didn’t know them well after having only moved to the area three and a half years ago.
‘I didn’t know them very well other than to give the kid his soccer ball back when it came in my yard,’ he said. ‘I had small conversations with her, just general how you doing? She was always pleasant.’
Candlelight vigil
‘I’m having trouble believing it’ the next door neighbor reiterated.
Other neighbors described Bell as a friendly likable woman, and also expressed shock ad disbelief over the weekend mayhem that has rocked the small knit community.
According to property records cited by the Register Citizen, Bell and her 47-year-old husband, Owen Bell, bought a North Main Street house in 2003 for $165,000. The two-family house built in 1890, has 10 rooms.
A virtual candlelight vigil is scheduled for Sunday afternoon at 4 p.m. It will be live-streamed by the Terryville Congregational Church.
