NORTHAMPTON — Police are investigating the deaths of two people found in a residence on Village Hill.
About a dozen police cruisers and a crime scene investigation van were outside the Hilltop Apartments West building all day Thursday at 51 Village Hill Road. Police officers, some in plain clothes and others in white sterile garb, could be seen going in and out of the building’s front door.
Located off Route 66, Hilltop Apartments is a 33-unit, mixed-income apartment complex on the grounds of the former Northampton State Hospital.
Yellow police tape cordoned off the entire building and property from the public and tenants were evacuated. Northampton police declined to comment in a phone call late Thursday morning, citing “an ongoing police investigation.” Calls to the state police’s press office were not immediately returned.
News of the incident came as a shock to many who live nearby. Katherine George, who lives across the street, said Village Hill is typically a quiet and peaceful neighborhood.
“Usually there’s nothing going on,” she said.
A tenant who lives in the Hilltop Apartments West building said police asked him if he had heard or seen anything suspicious. He noted that around 35 officers were on the scene at one point, and the building was evacuated. Another tenant told a Gazette reporter that he first noticed the police presence at around 8 a.m.
By 3 p.m., police were seen taking down the yellow tape and leaving the scene.
The incident is being investigated by Northampton Police and Massachusetts State Police assigned to the Northwestern district attorney’s office. Mary Carey, a spokeswoman for the DA’s office, wrote in an email Thursday that there is no concern for public safety and that “further information will be released as it becomes available.”