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Police Investigating Suspicious Death Of Child In Fitchburg

FITCHBURG (CBS) – A Fitchburg neighborhood was on lockdown after an incident that left a 6-year-old girl dead and her 9-year-old brother hospitalized Tuesday. Police are calling the death suspicious.

As it got dark, crime scene technicians were still scouring the little brown house on Stoneybrook Road and disbelieving neighbors were still struggling with it.

"It's insanity I never thought that in a quiet neighborhood like this that something would ever happen, but you never know," neighbor Doug Munroe said.

It was just before noon when a 911 call summoned an ambulance to 139 Stoneybrook and paramedics discovered two injured children, a 9-year-old boy and a 6-year-old girl.

"Upon their arrival, police found an injured young boy and a non-responsive young girl," Worcester County District Attorney Joseph Early Jr. said.

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Police at home on Stoneybrook Road in Fitchburg (WBZ-TV)

Both children were brought to the UMass-Memorial HealthAlliance where the 6-year-old girl was pronounced dead. The boy was transferred to Worcester Hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

Police were soon swarming the area taking a woman into custody in some nearby woods and plucking a man from a pickup truck just around the corner.

"The police had him surrounded and he was distraught, yelling and stuff and waving his arms," said neighbor Peter Croteau.

Sources tell the WBZ I-Team that the children's mom and dad are both being questioned by police.

Fitchburg Police Chief Ernest Martineau said the death was not a random act and the public is not in danger.

Neighbors described children that did not venture out much and parents they didn't know beyond a quick wave. "They were never outside," Munroe said.

Neighbors who had hoped a late afternoon press briefing might bring some clarity to the tragedy, didn't get many answers.

"The case is very active, a lot of moving parts are going on right now that I can't take questions on," said Early.

And that will make for an uneasy night in the Stoneybrook Village neighborhood.

"It's awful, it's terrible," said Croteau. "I don't know what to say about it. Loss for words."

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Police locked down the Sizer Charter School in Fitchburg during the investigation Tuesday afternoon. (WBZ-TV)

While police were investigating the child's death on Stoneybrook Road, the Sizer School in Fitchburg was placed on lockdown. Sources said police were responding to reports of an active shooter. Chief Martineau said the school lockdown had nothing to do with the death investigation.

A Facebook post by the school a few hours later read, "False alarm today at Sizer School caused a large police presence. Everyone is SAFE!"

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