A Dartmouth man has been charged with second-degree murder after he allegedly stabbed his girlfriend to death at an apartment building on Saturday.

Police arrested 28-year-old Christopher Kenneth Hutchinson on Monday afternoon.

Officers responded to a report of a disturbance in the common area of the apartment building, located at 117 Albro Lake Road, at 10:15 p.m. on Saturday.

When they arrived on the scene, officers discovered a woman’s body in the stairwell.

“There was a lot of hate, a lot of hate in that murder,” says tenant Dylan Kennedy, who also came across the body in the stairwell.

Police have identified the victim as 33-year-old Tara Lynn Park of Dartmouth.

An autopsy conducted on Sunday confirms Park died as a result of stab wounds.

“They were in a domestic relationship and it was not considered to be a random act,” says Halifax Regional Police Const. Pierre Bourdages.

In addition to the second-degree murder charge, Hutchinson is also charged with assaulting a police officer with a weapon and property damage.

“He punched one officer in the face, threw a chair at one officer and also conducted extensive damage in the room where the interview was held,” says Bourdages.

The officers did not sustain any injuries.

Hutchinsonmade a brief appearance in Dartmouth provincial court on Tuesday afternoon.

He is due back in court on June 18 for a bail hearing.

Victim remembered as quiet, single mother

People who live in the apartment complex say they didn’t know Park, who had only moved in on Saturday morning.

“There was a trail of blood leading from apartment four and going down by the stairs and that apartment was empty before,” says neighbour Shelby DeCoste.

Charlene Whynot, who has lived in the building for three years, admits the incident has her feeling anxious.

“It just makes me feel uneasy, of course. Security is kind of gone,” says Whynot.

Some of the building’s tenants are even considering moving.

“I don’t think I can walk up those stairs every day. All that I’m going to see is her eyes,” says Kennedy.

Park was originally from Sheet Harbour and leaves behind a young daughter, a brother and her parents.

Residents of Sheet Harbour who knew her are expressing shock over her murder. They say she was a quiet single mother who kept to herself.

“Looked after her kid, went for walks on the sidewalk, that’s really about it,” says Matthew Moser, who lived next to Park for a few years until she moved to Dartmouth in December.

“She had a quite a few friends in the community. A couple people yesterday that were shocked.”

“Not a day would go by that a Facebook status wasn’t about her daughter,” says friend Donna Fralick-Maguire.

Fralick-Maguire met Park in February 2012 when she was trying to find a new home for her dog, and Fralick-Maguire was interested. They have kept in touch on Facebook ever since.

“I’m grateful to her myself to know her because she gave me a beautiful dog. I found she had a beautiful spirit and that spirit should live on and hope it lives on through her child,” says Fralick-Maguire.

Park’s funeral will take place in Sheet Harbour at a later date.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Sarah Plowman