Court docs: Woman accused in hatchet attack threatened mom with screwdriver in earlier incident

MANCHESTER, NH – A woman accused of attacking another woman with a hatchet during a melee late Saturday afternoon in a Cedar Street back alley was ordered held without bail.

Angelina Gagne, 19, of 464 Auburn St., Apt. 2, was arraigned Monday in Hillsborough County Superior Court North on charges of felony riot and first-degree assault with a deadly weapon.

Nine others were arrested in the incident, with each charged with felony riot.  They will be arraigned at later dates.  They are:

David Mekkelson, 20, Gavin Christo, 20, Kristin Vieira, 39, Liam Adams, 18, David Lafond, 19, Owen Rood, 18, Debra Cruz, 42, Madison Rood-Parker, 18, all of Manchester, and Scott Rood, 24, of Nottingham.

According to the affidavit of Officer Patrick Hare, police learned of the incident at 5:55 p.m. Saturday when the Elliot Hospital reported a woman was being treated for a stab wound.  Later, a second woman, also suffering from a stab wound, arrived in the emergency room.

Police learned the incident took place in the alley near 409 Cedar St. and the person responsible was a Hispanic woman in her 20s, who was wearing camouflage pants.

Hare went to the scene in an attempt to find the woman responsible for the stabbing. He identified her as Gagne from a prior domestic incident that took place at 464 Auburn St., the back side of which faces the Cedar Street alley.  Gagne was detained when she came out of her apartment building. A man identified only as “DM” in the affidavit (presumably David Mekkelson) also came out of the building.

Both were identified as being involved in the fight on Cedar Street South Back.  Investigators also learned a machete had been thrown into a neighbor’s yard.  One neighbor, Hare wrote, provided police with footage of the fight which allowed investigators to identify the participants.

On the video, a group of people were recorded coming from the area of 409 Cedar Street and yelling as they walked toward 464 Auburn St.  After the yelling begins, Gagne comes out of her apartment building holding what appears to be a small black hatchet in her left hand.  She is yelling back and banging the hatchet against the stair railing.  Soon, Mekkelson appears behind Gagne; he is holding a phone in one hand and a knife in the other.

The 409 Cedar St. group advances on them but stops halfway between the two residences. Mekkelson and DL, presumably David Lafond, exchange words and someone yells, “Put the knife down.”  Mekkelson drops the knife and he and Lafond begin fighting.  When they fall to the ground, with Lafond on top of Mekkelson, Gagne starts to hit Lafond’s torso with the hatchet.  Christo and Rood-Parker then begin punching Gagne and pulling her hair.

While that is happening, Gagne is swinging her right hand, still holding the hatchet and striking Rood-Parker.  While those three are fighting, Vieira joins in and engages Gagne and another unidentified woman.

While Lafond is on top of Mekkelson, Christo and Cruz kick Mekkelson, according to Hare’s affidavit.  The fight between Mekkelson and Lafond ends and Mekkelson walks over to where Gagne is and kicks someone else who is on the ground.  Then, Scott Rood engages in a fight with Mekkelson, punching and pushing him into a car and a fence.

At that point, the parties separate.

Gagne maintained she was acting in self-defense and that she was scared.  Judge David Anderson, however, noted that she could have called police and stayed inside her apartment where she was safe.

Gagne was out on personal recognizance bail on prior charges including criminal threatening, criminal mischief and two counts of animal cruelty.  On June 1, 2023, Gagne is accused of threatening to kill her mother in an incident at 259 Cedar St., Apt. 3.  Her mother called police shortly after 3:30 a.m. and said Gagne was destroying the residence and was going to kill her, according to court records.  She said Gagne was armed with a screwdriver and was stabbing the apartment walls and her mother’s mattress.

The mother also told police that Gagne began stabbing into her birdcage and fish tank to try and harm her pets.

Gagne apparently was angry that earlier that morning, about 1 a.m., Gagne’s boyfriend was arrested in a domestic incident involving her at Belmont and Valley streets.  The incident was reported to police by her mother.

Gagne’s mother told officers after the domestic incident, a family friend dropped Gagne off at her apartment because her daughter had no place to go (she did not live with her mother).  Initially, things were OK but then Gagne began arguing with her mother and causing damage because she called police on her boyfriend.

After damaging the walls and mattress, Gagne allegedly raised the screwdriver up by her head with the point facing towards her mother and said she was going to kill her.