Hatchet-wielding MBTA trolley operator charged with attacking two men

WEYMOUTH, Mass. - An MBTA employee is behind bars after trying to attack two men with a hatchet.

According to the Patriot Ledger, police have identified the suspect as 55-year-old MaryEllen Shields of Newton, an MBTA trolley operator.

Shields is being charged with home invasion after she allegedly invaded her neighbor's apartment armed with a hatchet and tried to attack her neighbor and an 83-year-old man.

William, who has asked to remain anonymous, told Boston 25 News a woman with a hatchet chased him up Franklin Street in Weymouth.

"That's crazy, she has no reason, she doesn't know me," said William.

William says Shields went inside his apartment of Friday before he got out of work and stole his mail.

"She made a mess of my house, she stole all my post [...] my mail, my letters," said William.

Then, the suspect went up to William's 83-year-old landlord's apartment and forced her way in, screaming and yelling as she pulled out a hatchet and smashed his kitchen table.

“She [went] upstairs to try to talk to my landlord saying, [Are] you William? I wanna kill you,'" said William.

William says after that she suddenly just left, confronting him outside and chasing him with the hatchet while screaming.

"'[She was screaming] I wanna kill you, I wanna kill you,' and I took my phone and called the police cause I don't know her," said William.

William says Shields tossed the hatchet into a yard up the road from his apartment before police stopped her as she tried to pull away.

"When the cops came she tried to escape," said William.

William believes this whole incident may be over a car he sold to his friend, and that Shields apparently thought he had the car's title.

Shields was arraigned Monday on charges of home invasion, two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon, assault and battery on a person over 60, armed breaking and entering for a felony, malicious destruction of property and larceny.

She is being held without bail pending a dangerousness hearing on Thursday.

Cox Media Group