An 86-year-old man appears to have shot his wife and then himself at their home in the Wakefield area on Tuesday (Feb. 28), police say.
Fairfax County police officers were called to a house in the 8900 block of Walker Street near Annandale around 10:15 p.m. after a friend found the bodies of Janos John Gertler and 73-year-old Eva Anna Vas.
Both Gertler and Vas had gunshot wounds and were declared dead at the scene.
“Preliminarily, detectives believe Janos shot his wife, Eva, before shooting himself,” the Fairfax County Police Department said in a report released yesterday (Wednesday). “Several spent cartridge cases and a firearm were located within the home. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner will be completing autopsies to confirm manner and cause of death.”
An investigation into the apparent murder-suicide is still underway.
Preliminarily, detectives believe this to be a murder-suicide involving an elderly couple. Additional updates will be posted to our blog, https://t.co/YUigMm3yDx when available. https://t.co/yFyswvnZhH
— Fairfax County Police (@FairfaxCountyPD) March 1, 2023
This is the second fatal shooting within the past week that the FCPD believes stemmed from a domestic incident. Last Friday (Feb. 24), a Herndon man shot another man who had allegedly stabbed his wife at their home in the 13200 block of Stable Brook Way.
The man who was shot and the woman both died. Police later identified them as Joseph Ryan, 39, of Springfield and Christine Banfield, 37, of Herndon.
Police Chief Kevin Davis told media that investigators believed everyone involved in the incident knew each other, but in a news release, the FCPD said the man told 911 that “he shot an unknown man who entered his home and stabbed a woman.”