Fisher said the killings of Thelma J. Tatten and Mark A. Cavallaro allegedly at the hands of their daughter mark the first homicides in Bedford since 1982. In that case, Robert Crowe, 19, was fatally stabbed with a screwdriver by a man who had broken into his home, according to state Parole Board records.
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With the killings of Tatten and Cavallaro, both 56, Bedford was confronted with an act of gun violence and alleged parricide as well as questions about how the younger Cavallaro allegedly accessed a gun and whether she was experiencing mental illness.
Fisher said he doesn’t have answers to those questions. The allegations involving the death of parents at the hands of their daughter have been hard for residents to grasp, he said.
“I’d be remiss not to say that this case has some nuances that make it very difficult for people to digest,” he said.
Investigators allege Cavallaro experienced a panic attack Thursday morning while at work, left her job as a patient services representative at a health care organization early, and went to the home she shares with her boyfriend and his parents. Cavallaro’s parents, who also live in Bedford, offered to take her to breakfast and picked her up from her residence on Washington Street.
But inside her parents’ SUV, prosecutors said Cavallaro shot them in the head and then went inside her home, where she confessed to her boyfriend’s family.
At her arraignment, Cavallaro pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon causing serious bodily injury, and illegal gun possession.
David Marchesini, the father of Cavallaro’s boyfriend, told investigators he suspected that she took the gun from a safe in the home. He said his son also owned guns and there were at least four more in the house, according to a police report.
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Bedford runs a gun violence prevention program that provides free gun locks, runs gun buyback events, and hosted a forum last year with a specialist from Massachusetts General Hospital, said Maureen Richichi, chairperson of the town’s board of health.
“No community is immune to this,” Richichi said Saturday in a phone interview.
Located about 15 miles northwest of Boston, Bedford is a suburb with a population of 14,383 people, according to the US Census Bureau. Its landmarks include Hanscom Air Force Base, a hospital run by the US Department of Veterans Affairs, and a campus for Middlesex Community College.
Residents interviewed by the Globe described the community in glowing terms, but in a country where gun violence is pervasive, they said their town remains vulnerable.
“It could happen anywhere,” said Kay Corry Aubrey, who has lived in Bedford for 23 years. “That’s the blunt reality that we live in right now.”
Ron Stewart echoed that perspective.
“It’s a shock that our community is experiencing, but in some ways, like so many other communities, it’s not a surprise,” he said Friday while visiting Bedford Marketplace, a shopping plaza.
Some residents commented on the availability of firearms.
Christine Dudley, who was also at Bedford Marketplace on Friday, said “guns should be as regulated as cars.
“I think that we would have two people here today if we didn’t have so many guns,” she said.
Mary Criscione said she feels sympathy for Tatten and Cavallaro, and their daughter. She said she’s also concerned that the younger Cavallaro allegedly had access to a firearm.
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“If there weren’t guns involved, this wouldn’t have happened,” she said Saturday outside the town’s public library. “Why did she have access to a gun?”
The Rev. Jamie Hinson-Rieger, senior minister at First Parish in Bedford, said the congregation plans to hold a moment of silence on Sunday to reflect on the tragedy.
“All of our traditions call on us to care for each other,” he said. “The question that we’ll be thinking about is how will we collectively care for each other and how do we work together to create safer spaces?”
The Rev. John E. Gibbons, Hinson-Rieger’s predecessor at First Parish, said he has lived in Bedford for 34 years.
“While not all violence can be prevented, communities can never do too much to reduce violence [and] promote peaceful resolution to conflict,” he wrote Saturday in a text message.
The Rev. Chris Wendell, rector at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Bedford, said the violence was stunning for some congregants.
Safety is a “partnership between the laws, the government, and the people in the community together,” Wendell said in a phone interview.
“There are ways that we can be with one another to promote safety while we also work to change the laws,” he said.
Fisher said he hopes the open house at police headquarters offered an opportunity for residents to try to heal, but cautioned that such tragedies are difficult to overcome.
He cited the murder conviction last month of a Salem man who was arrested two years ago for killing 54-year-old Natalie Scheublin in Bedford in 1971.
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“The healing process is going to be long and we don’t know how long it’s going to take,” Fisher said. “And it’s probably never going to end.”
Laura Crimaldi can be reached at laura.crimaldi@globe.com. Follow her @lauracrimaldi. Madison Hahamy can be reached at madison.hahamy@globe.com. Follow her @MHahamy.
