A 25-year-old man who allegedly stabbed his parents and girlfriend with a pair of scissors inside an Acton home late Thursday night had gone to a hospital for mental health issues earlier in the day, The Boston Globe reports.

Benjamin DiCristina, of Acton, was arraigned in Concord District Court Friday morning hours after the attack at the Haynes Court residence that gravely injured his 57-year-old father, who attempted to save the 28-year-old girlfriend from DiCristina, according to the newspaper.

Prosecutors in court said DiCristina’s mother, 56, found her son screaming while he was on top of his girlfriend, choking her with his hands around her neck, in his bedroom, the Globe reports.


Acton police responded to a report of an unconscious man at the home around 10:30 p.m. and learned about the stabbing on the way there, according to the Middlesex County District Attorney’s office.

Both DiCristina’s mother and father tried to break up the incident, prosecutors said.

“The preliminary investigation suggests that the defendant allegedly attacked the 28-year-old female strangling and stabbing her in the chest,” the district attorney’s office said. “During a subsequent altercation the defendant allegedly cut his mother before attacking his father, allegedly stabbing him multiple times in the head and neck. The female victims were able to call 911 during the altercation.”

DiCristina’s mother has been released from the hospital, but his girlfriend and father remained hospitalized Friday afternoon with serious injuries, officials said. His father is not expected to survive, according to the district attorney’s office.

Police outside of the Haynes Court home. —Jonathan Wiggs / The Boston Globe

Middlesex Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth Dunigan said Friday that DiCristina has a history of mental health issues and had gone to a hospital Thursday afternoon but left once he was given a referral to a partial treatment program, the Globe reports.

DiCristina, who locked himself in a bathroom after the incident, was arrested at the home Thursday night. Police found him holding a pair of scissors, Dunigan said.


He was charged with two counts each of armed assault with intent to murder and assault and battery causing serious bodily injury, the district attorney’s office said in a press release. He also faces charges of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, domestic assault and battery, and strangulation.

A not guilty plea was entered on his behalf Friday, and Judge Elizabeth Cremens ordered DiCristina to receive a 20-day mental health evaluation at Bridgewater State Hospital.

Cremens also allowed a motion made by prosecutors for a dangerousness hearing in the case and ordered that DiCristina be held without bail, according to the district attorney’s office. DiCristina is scheduled to return to court on Oct. 25 for a status hearing.

An investigation into the incident by the district attorney’s office, Acton Police, and Massachusetts State Police remains ongoing.