Ryan Hanafin, 22, was arrested in Vermont after police sought him as armed and dangerous following his mother's fatal shooting in their Massachusetts home.

Authorities took Ryan Hanafin into custody without incident in Warren, Vermont, around 2:30 p.m. ET, ending a manhunt that began when his mother, Andria Hanafin, 49, was found shot dead in the kitchen of the family's Reading home. Fox News reported he was held for arraignment as a fugitive from justice after being sought as a person of interest, not a formal suspect at the time of the search.

Matthew Hanafin, the victim's husband, found Andria shortly after midnight Thursday when he returned from a 12-hour shift and called police around 12:38 a.m. Officials said the couple's 13-year-old child was home; a daughter was away at college. Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan described the case as stemming from a dispute between mother and son and labeled it domestic violence, though not in the form many people picture.

The killing left a suburban Massachusetts family shattered and sent police across state lines after a young man they warned the public not to approach. Cases of women killed inside their own homes continue to demand fast police work and clear accountability, a pattern also seen when a Brazilian illegal immigrant was arrested for allegedly strangling a Massachusetts woman in her residence.

Reading Police Chief David J. Clark told residents to expect a heavy law-enforcement presence while officers worked the scene and hunted for Ryan. The family had no history of police visits before the Thursday shooting, Clark said.

Police warned the public not to approach him

The Daily Mail reported that officials described Ryan as armed and dangerous and urged extreme caution while the search was active. His legal gun license was suspended Thursday morning after the shooting was discovered. The weapon used in the killing had not been located.

Clark pressed the public to stay clear and call authorities instead of intervening.

"By all means, please do not approach him," Reading Police Chief David J. Clark said. "Please contact 911, the local police department, whatever, if you see the vehicle or come across him. We are urging people to stay safe and not put themselves in danger."

Police said Ryan may have been driving a 2010 black Dodge Charger with license plate 2PSY15. Matthew told investigators he had not seen his son since Wednesday morning, before leaving for work. The 13-year-old last saw his mother alive around 5 p.m., according to later reporting on the family's account of the day.

Domestic shootings that tear through entire households leave communities demanding answers and swift arrests, much like a North Carolina domestic shooting that killed three family members and put another in the hospital.

Prosecutors call it a dispute turned deadly

At a press conference, District Attorney Marian Ryan framed the shooting as a mother-son conflict that turned fatal. She said investigators believed a "dispute" led to the killing and called it domestic violence "at this point, although not the traditional domestic violence situation that we think of."

Ryan also addressed the presence of firearms in the household and the human cost for the surviving children.

"It is a moment of reflection about the presence of guns in a home. It is shocking. It is tragic."

She continued with the toll on the family still at home and the son then at large.

"We have two children now that have lost their mother. We have another child who's at least a person of interest at this point. So this is a first and foremost a terrible tragedy... We certainly don't want a tragedy to be compounded by anything else."

The New York Post reported Ryan confirmed the carry license detail in plain terms: "We do know Ryan Hanafin has a license to carry, that was suspended this morning." The same account said Ryan had no known mental-health issues on record with authorities and that no motive beyond the described dispute had been made public. He had most recently been employed six months earlier and had previously attended a local university.

Chief Clark said officers were still piecing together the night's events even as the search widened.

"are looking to find out what happened at that home last night"

Arrest closes the manhunt, not the case

Ryan was taken into custody in Vermont without incident after the multi-state hunt. He had fled the Reading area following the discovery of his mother's body. No charges beyond his status as a fugitive from justice were detailed in the initial arrest reports, and he remained a person of interest in the shooting itself while headed for arraignment.

Friends of the victim described sudden loss and a life cut short. Family friend Heather Gagliardi wrote that there were "truly no words to describe the heartbreak of losing someone so suddenly and tragically" and called Andria a "beautiful friend" taken "far too soon."

Violent crime that strikes inside the home forces the same hard questions about warning signs, response time, and whether dangerous people are kept off the street, themes that also surface when a Sacramento woman stalked for months was shot dead by an offender who should never have been free to hunt her.

Reading residents saw a surge of police activity while the search was live. Officials stressed public safety first: report sightings, do not confront, and let trained officers handle an armed fugitive. The arrest in Warren ended the immediate threat of a wanted man on the road with a suspended gun license and an unrecovered murder weapon still unaccounted for in the early reporting.

Targeted killings that wipe out multiple relatives in a single attack show how quickly family violence can expand, a reality underscored when five family members were killed in a targeted East St. Louis mass shooting and teenagers were taken into custody.

Andria Hanafin was pronounced dead at the scene. Her husband came home to a nightmare after a long shift. Two children lost their mother in a single night, and a third went from the family home to a wanted poster and then a Vermont jail cell. Police and prosecutors still have to prove exactly what happened in that kitchen and who pulled the trigger.

When a mother is shot dead in her own kitchen and her son is chased down across state lines, the public has every right to expect swift arrests, honest charging decisions, and a justice system that treats domestic killings with the seriousness they deserve, not excuses, and not delay.