A Boston woman was arrested Friday on a warrant for murder in connection with a stabbing in Ramsay Park last month that claimed the life of a 65-year-old homeless woman, officials said.
Police arrested Rasheedah Hughes, 40, at around around 4:45 p.m., according to a department statement. Hughes was taken into custody near Hammond Street, just blocks from the park on the South End-Roxbury line where Celia Simmons was fatally stabbed.
Simmons, 65, was found suffering from multiple life-threatening stab wounds just after 12:45 p.m. on Nov. 16, officials said. She was taken to a local hospital, where she died later that night.
Simmons, known to friends as “CeCe,” lived at the nearby Woods Mullen Shelter for homeless women at the time of her death, the Globe previously reported. In the days after her death, mourners left dozens of flowers, balloons, devotional candles, and stuffed animals near the spot where she was killed.
“That was a good person and a good friend to me,” Nichole Powell, who had met Simmons at another homeless shelter in the South End, said at the time. “Thinking of walking through [the park] and not seeing her face, it’s sad.”
Hughes is scheduled to be arraigned in the Roxbury division of Boston Municipal Court on Monday, officials said. She has previously faced felony assault and battery charges — including with a dangerous weapon — though the most recent charges were dismissed in 2022, court records show. It was unclear Saturday whether Hughes had retained an attorney to represent her.
Material from previous Globe coverage was used in this report.
Camilo Fonseca can be reached at camilo.fonseca@globe.com. Follow him on X @fonseca_esq and on Instagram @camilo_fonseca.reports.