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Edgewater Community On Edge After Murder Of 85-Year-Old Woman

EDGEWATER, MD. (WJZ) -- An Anne Arundel County man is behind bars accused of killing his own mother. The murder has left the community on edge.

WJZ spoke with a woman who rents from the victim and the suspect. She lives on the bottom floor of their apartment home. She did not want to give us her name.

"We don't even really know what to say about it," the tenant said. "We're just stunned because, I mean, it's a tragedy."

Anne Arundel County Police said they got a call for a disturbance at a home on Woodsboro Place in Edgewater early Tuesday morning. Inside, they found the body of 85-year-old Zakia Zaharna. Police immediately named the woman's 55-year-old son, Aiman Zaharna, as a person of interest.

Police arrested him later that day and charged him with murder.

"It's awful," neighbor Paul Turner said. "It's terrible. It's a shameful thing that happened, you know, 55-year-old guy doing something like that to his mother."

WJZ spoke with the Zaharna's tenants. They live on the bottom floor of the family's apartment home.

"I'm just grieving for the family right now," the tenant said. "We know them very well because we rented another place from them. It's just so sad that this had to come to this and no one knows what triggered it."

People who live across the street are just as shocked.

"I just hope this kind of thing doesn't happen anymore around here," Tuner said. "Gives Edgewater a bad name when really it's a nice community."

Police say that even though an arrest has been made, they're still investigating this case. Anyone with information is urged to give them a call. Callers can remain anonymous.

 

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