(Updated at 5:25 p.m.) A 37-year-old man was fatally shot last night (Thursday) at a parking garage in Herndon’s Arrowbrook Centre development.
The Fairfax County Police Department identified the victim this afternoon (Friday) as Robert Fisher of Chantilly. A 40-year-old man from Herndon, Major Feheem Stokes, was arrested yesterday as the suspect.
In a briefing at 2:23 a.m, Lt. James Curry with the FCPD’s public affairs bureau said Stokes may be Fisher’s brother, but police now describe him as “a known associate.”
“We’re still actively investigating to determine the circumstances that led to this shooting,” Curry said. “But preliminarily, we determined there was some sort of disagreement and argument that led to the fatal shooting…The adult suspect, a 40-year-old man, remains in custody.”
A woman who identified herself as the victim’s daughter called 911 shortly after 11 p.m., reporting that her father was shot and “bleeding out” at 13310 Launders Street, a dispatcher said at 11:08 a.m., per scanner traffic on Open MHz.
According to the dispatcher, the woman told 911 that her uncle “was on the scene but left,” stating that she heard the shots but “didn’t see what happened.”
When officers responded to the garage, they found a man with gunshot wounds to the upper body on the top floor of the garage, according to Curry.
“They attempted first aid, but unfortunately, he succumbed to his injuries,” Curry said.
While officers were canvassing the area, Stokes called 911 and identified himself as the shooter, the FCPD says. He was located and taken into custody at a townhome in the 13300 block of Coppermine Road.
Stokes faces charges of second-degree murder and the use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.
As of the 2:23 a.m. briefing, no weapon had been recovered, according to Curry.
“We continue to execute search warrants, interview witnesses as well as other community members that were nearby,” he said.
Watch here for the update from the scene. Prelim, the victim & suspect were known to each other and may be related. Suspect in custody and updates will be provided later today. pic.twitter.com/XANDUAmpCS
— Fairfax County Police (@FairfaxCountyPD) July 7, 2023
Drugs have claimed another young life in Fairfax County.
Two 16-year-old boys overdosed on Sunday (June 25) — one of them fatally — in a car parked outside Aldi (5725 Columbia Pike) in Bailey’s Crossroads, the Fairfax County Police Department reported yesterday.
Officers were dispatched to the grocery store’s parking lot at 7:21 p.m. after receiving a call for two individuals found unconscious in a vehicle “with foam coming out their mouths,” according to a dispatcher.
“[The] caller did bang on the window. However, they are not responding,” the dispatcher said.
Emergency medical services personnel with the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department were dispatched to the scene around 7:23 p.m., per scanner traffic on Open MHz.
First responders began administering CPR and Narcan, a nasal spray that can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose. Responders were able to detect a pulse from one of the juveniles after two doses of Narcan, an officer told the dispatcher at 7:28 p.m.
Both juveniles were taken to local hospitals in conditions considered life-threatening. One person later died at the hospital, while the other “remains hospitalized in critical condition,” the FCPD says.
Preliminarily, police believe the overdoses are related to opioids, but that won’t be confirmed until toxicology reports are completed, a department spokesperson told FFXnow.
“The case is still under active investigation,” the spokesperson said.
Fairfax County has seen a surge in opioid overdoses since 2019, particularly among youth and often involving the drug fentanyl.
In the Fairfax Health District, which includes the cities of Fairfax and Falls Church, there have been 176 non-fatal overdoses so far in 2023, as of May 31, putting the district on track to potentially match or exceed the 304 overdoses reported last year, according to the county’s opioid overdose dashboard.
The dashboard doesn’t include fatal overdose numbers for this year yet, but there were 82 in 2022, down from 111 overdoses in 2021.
“If you feel you may have overdosed or are concerned someone around you has, please call 9-1-1 immediately,” the FCPD said.
According to police, symptoms of an opioid overdose include:
- Face is pale or clammy
- Breathing is infrequent or has stopped
- Deep snoring or gurgling
- Unresponsive to any stimuli
- Slow or no heart rate and/or pulse
- Bluish purple, or ashen skin color
- Fingernails turn blue or blue-black
Treatment and recovery services for drug addiction are available through the county at the Fairfax-Falls Church Community Services Board’s Sharon Bulova Center for Community Health in Merrifield. The center can be contacted at 703-573-5679 for an appointment, and walk-ins are accepted Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
(Updated at 3:10 p.m.) A man who died by suicide in Richmond today (Monday) was responsible for a shooting, stabbing and carjacking in Reston yesterday, Fairfax County police say.
Officers were dispatched to a home in the 12000 block of Thunder Chase Drive at 1:58 a.m. yesterday, where they found one person inside with “multiple gunshot wounds,” according to the Fairfax County Police Department.
“Officers immediately rendered medical aid and the victim was taken to the hospital for serious but non-life-threatening injuries,” police said.
A second person was found in a nearby car “suffering from a stab wound to the arm and trauma to the face,” police said. That person was also taken to a hospital with injuries not considered life-threatening.
According to the FCPD, the person who got stabbed had been assaulted and abducted in Henrico County by 45-year-old Dana Paul Roman, a Richmond resident. The woman told police that Roman drove her to Reston at gunpoint and tied her to the car seat by a belt, according to scanner traffic.
“When Roman and the victim arrived at the Thunder Chase Drive address, Roman got out of the car and began shooting,” hitting the person later found inside the home multiple times before fleeing, police said.
The FCPD searched the area with help from a K9 unit, helicopter and Virginia State Police to no avail.
According to police, Roman apparently carjacked and abducted a third individual in Reston and forced them to drive to Henrico County.
Henrico County Police reported at 10:24 a.m. that its officers had located Roman and “pursued him into the City of Richmond, where he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound” at North 35th Street and East Marshall Avenue.
The FCPD says the shooting and stabbing victims were known to Roman. Before his death, detectives had obtained warrants charging him with abduction by force, carjacking, two counts of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, malicious wounding, and assault.
Henrico police had also gotten warrants for malicious wounding and robbery.
“Detectives continue to actively investigate the circumstances that led up to the violent encounters,” the FCPD said.
Henrico Police were able to locate Roman and pursued him into the City of Richmond where he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Richmond and Henrico Police forensics units are on site at 35th Street and E. Marshall Ave processing the scene.
More details to come shortly.
— Henrico Police (@HenricoPolice) June 12, 2023
A 21-year-old man has been sentenced to serve two years in prison for a fatal shooting at the Vienna Park apartments that the judge described as “a parent’s worst nightmare.”
What began as an intoxicated hangout between friends ended in tragedy when Vienna resident Andrew Gordiyenko shot 21-year-old Matthew Chadwick on June 10, 2021, according to defense attorney Erik Jurgensen’s recounting of the incident at a sentencing hearing on Friday (June 9).
Chadwick died at a hospital the following day, Vienna police reported.
Gordiyenko was arrested on March 14, 2022 and pleaded guilty on Jan. 31 to involuntary manslaughter and reckless discharge of a firearm. A felony charge of unlawful firing in an occupied dwelling had already been dismissed at a Sept. 12 preliminary hearing, per court records.
Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Christie Leary sentenced Gordiyenko to five years of incarceration, suspending three of them, followed by two years of active probation. She admitted to struggling with how to balance the need to hold Gordiyenko accountable and the awareness that he didn’t intend to kill his friend.
“All I see is heartbreak,” Leary said, looking out at a courtroom with both Gordiyenko’s parents and Chadwick’s family and supporters. “…What this sentence boils down to is punishment only. I think he’s going to punish himself far worse than I ever could.”
Under the plea agreement, Gordiyenko faced a potential sentence of six to 36 months. At the request of Chadwick’s family, Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Jenna Sands called for him to get the maximum term, while Jurgensen argued for a period on the lower end of that range.
“The Gordiyenko family will feel devastation, but it cannot equal the devastation” felt by the Chadwick family, Sands said, advocating for a sentence in line with the wishes of Chadwick’s family to give them “some small amount of control.”
Chadwick’s family declined to comment on the sentencing.
Vienna police officers were dispatched to the 100 block of Patrick St. SE in the early morning hours of June 10, 2021. Upon arriving, they found Chadwick inside an apartment with a gunshot wound to the head, according to the department’s news release.
Video submitted to the court showed Gordiyenko, Chadwick and a third person who was the apartment’s resident all handling the gun while under the influence of drugs and alcohol, Jurgensen said, acknowledging that it was “reckless behavior.”
“This case seems to have layer upon layer of sadness,” he said. “We have two young people that were friends, and one is gone and the other is responsible.”
The gun belonged to the third, unidentified person in the apartment. It was a “ghost gun,” a firearm with no serial number that can be assembled from a kit, according to the Office of the Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney.
Because ghost guns are technically purchased in parts, they’re not subject to background checks, and the lack of a serial number makes them difficult to trace. In Virginia, it’s not illegal to own a gun without a serial number — but it is a crime to be caught removing it, the commonwealth’s attorney’s office says.
Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano has advocated for stricter laws on ghost guns, but a bill that would criminalize sales, transfers and purchases died in a Virginia House of Delegates public safety subcommittee on Feb. 22.
“Matthew Chadwick’s death is the result of a tragic incident that didn’t need to end this way,” Descano said in a statement. “When ghost gun manufacturers use loopholes to evade even the most basic gun control laws, they enable access to deadly weapons. All too often, I see how the proliferation of guns in the hands of young people results in unnecessary harm and death.”
The Department of Justice implemented a policy last year that added ghost gun kits to the definition of firearms, requiring manufacturers to be subject to the same licensing and background check regulations as makers of traditional guns.
Spy Robert Hanssen, a former Vienna resident who passed along secrets to the Soviet Union and Russia via a nearby park, died yesterday (Monday) in a Colorado federal prison.
Hanssen, 79, was an FBI counterintelligence agent who was sentenced to life in prison in 2002 for passing classified information to Soviet (later Russian) intelligence.
Hanssen was found unresponsive in his cell yesterday and pronounced dead later that day. AP reported that he is believed to have died of natural causes.
Hanssen used Foxstone Park in Vienna as a dead drop location for passing along classified information. He was arrested at the park in February 2001.
According to the Fairfax County Park Authority, Hanssen sold classified secrets on at least 20 different occasions over 15 years.
At the time of his arrest, Hanssen was caught leaving a package underneath a park bridge. The bridge was discovered to have been a site for several “dead drops,” or exchanges of confidential information. In June 2001, Hanssen pleaded guilty to 15 espionage-related charges. He was sentenced in May 2002 to life in prison without parole. He was sent to the supermax unit of the U.S. federal prison in Florence, Colorado, to begin serving his sentence.
Hanssen’s actions were later dramatized in the movie “Breach,” which filmed some scenes at Foxstone Park.
An Alexandria man was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Wednesday (May 10) for selling fentanyl to a woman who died from an overdose in Clifton in 2021.
Reza Hashemi, 34, was sentenced for conspiring to distribute over 400 grams of fentanyl in Northern Virginia between July 2020 and June 2021, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release announcing the judgment by U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema.
According to court documents, Fairfax County police were called to a home in the Clifton area on May 28, 2021 by a witness who told 911 that a woman had taken an “unknown white substance” and needed naloxone, the drug that can reverse opioid overdoses.
A woman identified as J.F. was found unresponsive in the residence’s basement and pronounced deceased at 11:44 p.m. after failed resusitation efforts, one of the responding police officers said in an affidavit.
The witness told police that they had obtained powder fentanyl from Hashemi at a spot near Reed Avenue in Alexandria City.
Police arrested Hashemi in Tysons on June 2, 2021 after he dropped off fentanyl that the witness had arranged to buy from him, according to the affidavit.
Court records indicate that Hashemi reached a plea agreement with prosecutors in February.
“Mr. Hashemi became addicted to opioids after suffering trauma early in his life. He accepted responsibility early on in this case and continues to do so,” the Office of the Federal Public Defender in Alexandria, which represented Hashemi, said in a statement. “Although we do not agree that the sentence imposed was necessary, Mr. Hashemi accepts the court’s decision and is determined to address his own addiction through the next 15 years and beyond.”
In announcing the sentencing, the U.S. Attorney’s Office also linked Hashemi to the Oct. 24, 2020, fatal overdose of a 22-year-old man identified as J.V. in Vienna.
Hashemi distributed drugs, including “pressed counterfeit pills containing fentanyl,” to J.V. from Sept. 18, 2020 to “at least” Oct. 14, 2020, according to a statement of facts filed by prosecutors. After police informed him of J.V.’s death, Hashemi said he didn’t want to talk to law enforcement without a lawyer.
Court documents don’t explain how police determined that the drugs involved in J.V.’s overdose were the ones he got from Hashemi. The U.S. Attorney’s Office didn’t respond to FFXnow’s request for comment by press time.
“The government’s repeated insinuations in connection with [Hashemi’s] invocation of his right to counsel misrepresent the facts and betray an ignorance of every individual’s constitutional rights,” the public defender’s office said.
Photo via Google Maps
(Updated at 2 p.m. on 5/12/2023) A man from Newport News was killed during a struggle with police in Penn Daw where two officers fired their guns.
No officers were injured in the gunfire, which occured outside a McDonalds (6239 Richmond Highway), but one officer was hospitalized with head injuries from a fight with 38-year-old Brandon Lemagne prior to the shooting, the Fairfax County Police Department said.
“He was fighting for his life, literally,” Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis said of the injured officer in a media briefing.
According to the FCPD, the encounter began when that officer got a license plate alert at 4:06 p.m. for a U-Haul truck that had been reported stolen in Richmond on May 3. The officer pulled into the Citgo gas station adjacent to McDonalds when Lemagne stopped the truck at the station and got out.
“He made contact with driver outside the vehicle,” Davis said. “Very shortly thereafter, the assailant — and that’s what I’m calling him — shoved our police officer into the open front driver’s door of the marked police car and was attacking him, was on top of him and was violently assaulting our uniformed Fairfax County police officer.”
At some point during the struggle, the police cruiser was put in reverse and drove backwards until it hit two vehicles parked at McDonalds.
Scanner traffic on Open MHz captured an officer yelling, “He’s got my gun” at 4:07 p.m., followed about 20 seconds later by shouts of “shots fired.”
According to police, two officers — a 24-year veteran and an 8-year veteran from the Mount Vernon District station — responded to the dispatch. The 8-year veteran fired “several rounds,” while the other pulled Lemagne off of the police officer, Davis said.
The 24-year veteran then fired his gun, hitting and killing Lemagne.
“Several shots fired. We got the guy,” an officer told the dispatcher.
The officer’s gun was recovered from the scene, and he was discharged from the hospital a day later.
Describing the incident as “pretty dramatic” and unlike anything he’s seen before, Davis noted that there was body-worn camera and surveillance footage of the incident. A video from what appears to be a cell phone has already been circulated on social media.
This is the second fatal shooting by Fairfax County police this year, after D.C. resident Timothy Johnson was killed outside Tysons Corner Center on Feb. 22.
“All officer involved shootings receive the utmost investigative attention from our internal affairs bureau and major crimes,” Davis said, later adding that “we certainly take the loss of any life very seriously.”
No officers were injured from the gunfire. Updates to follow.
— Fairfax County Police (@FairfaxCountyPD) May 11, 2023
— Romeo (@RVANOVA01) May 11, 2023
Multiple pets were killed in a house fire in the Broyhill Crest neighborhood of Annandale this morning.
Fairfax County firefighters were dispatched to the single-family house in the 3500 block of Marvin Street at 11:19 a.m., according to scanner traffic.
Upon arriving, firefighters found smoke issuing from a fire apparently concentrated in the house’s basement, which was difficult to access due to “hoarding conditions.”
All human occupants were able to evacuate and are safe, Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department spokesperson Ashley Hildebrandt says. The exact number of people who were in the house hasn’t been confirmed yet.
However, two dogs and a cat were trapped by the fire. Annandale Today first reported that one of the dogs, a Doberman, had died, and the FCFRD later confirmed that all three pets were killed.
Units are on scene of a reported house fire in the 3500 blk of Marvin Street in the Annandale area. Units arrived on scene to find smoke showing. The fire is under control. No civilian or firefighter injuries. Sadly, two dogs and a cat did not survive. pic.twitter.com/X5kFuwO1Zh
— Fairfax County Fire/Rescue (@ffxfirerescue) May 3, 2023
Happening now. A fire on Marvin Street in Broyhill Crest in Annandale has claimed the life of the resident's Doberman. Another dog and cat are still inside. Units from the Annandale, Bailey's Crossroads, and Edsall Road fire stations are on the scene. pic.twitter.com/UFMKcbjZRD
— Annandale Today (@AnnandaleToday) May 3, 2023
Hat tip to Xavier “X” on Twitter
(Updated at 2:20 p.m.) Fairfax County first responders were sent to an incorrect address during a 911 call for a cardiac arrest incident at the Reston Town Center Metro station yesterday (Tuesday), leading to a delay in the response.
Based on information provided by Metro, the Fairfax County Department of Public Safety Communications dispatched emergency crews to 1901 Reston Metro Plaza — an address next to the Wiehle-Reston East Metro station, reported local public safety watcher Dave Statter.
Personnel then received an address change about 10 minutes later directing them to 12023 Sunset Hills Road, the north pavilion for the Reston Town Center station about two miles away, according to Statter.
A county spokesperson provided the following statement to FFXnow, confirming that there was a mix-up in the address:
On March 21 the Fairfax County Department of Public Safety Communications (DPSC) received a call from the Washington Metropolitans Area Transit Authority (WMATA) via the non-emergency phone line at 09:06:59 reporting a cardiac arrest at the Wiehle Metro Station. DPSC dispatched Fairfax County Fire and Rescue (FRD) to the incident at 09:08:45. The first unit arrived at the dispatched location at 09:13:10. This was identified as the incorrect location by responding personnel. Working together, FRD and DPSC redirected resources to the correct location, Reston Metro Station and arrived on the incident scene at 09:19:29.
The man later died at a hospital, according to the report.
Ian Jannetta, spokesperson for WMATA, said the organization is investigating the incident.
“Metro addresses a number of medical emergencies related to customers daily,” Janetta said. “We are looking into our response to this incident and how we can improve our efforts in the future. Our deepest sympathies are extended to our customer and their family.”
Statter says this isn’t the first time WMATA provided an incorrect address in the past.
WMATA confirmed that its control center initially gave an incorrect station address to the county fire department, noting that Metro workers were administering CPR before emergency responders arrived.
“It was rectified with Fairfax EMS during the response to the incident during which time CPR was being provided prior to their arrival,” Janetta said. “We are verifying all station addresses systemwide to ensure our control centers and jurisdictional partners have the correct information.”
(1) @fairfaxcounty confirms @WMATA gave the wrong address for the Reston Town Center #Metro Station. It delayed fire & EMS getting to a man in cardiac arrest. That man died. How did this mistake occur? #WMATA isn't saying but it fits a pattern. (more) @wmatagm pic.twitter.com/19I8QDdiI3
— Dave Statter (@STATter911) March 22, 2023
As a steady drizzle of rain provided an appropriately somber atmosphere, the parents of Timothy McCree Johnson and their supporters gathered in front of the Fairfax County Government Center on Friday (March 3) to call for justice after his recent death in a police shooting outside Tysons Corner Center.
With support from the Fairfax County NAACP, top among the family’s demands are the continued call for an independent investigation of the shooting and the prompt release of body-worn camera footage captured by the two police officers who fired their guns.
The Fairfax County Police Department maintains that the footage will be made public within 30 days of the shooting, in accordance with its information release policy, but Johnson’s mother, Melissa Johnson, questioned why she and her family needs to wait that long to see what happened to her son.
“The Johnson family needs to see the unedited footage of the body-worn cameras, and they need to see it now,” said Carl Crews, an attorney for the family. “They need to know what the officer perceived that he thought was a threat to his life from Timothy, that was running away from him. The longer it takes for us, for the Johnson family to see the footage, the more time we will have to simply speculate as to what happened.”
A 37-year-old D.C. resident, Johnson was shot once in the chest around 6:30 p.m. on Feb. 22 by officers who pursued him after he was allegedly seen trying to shoplift a pair of sunglasses from Nordstorm.
The FCPD identified the officers involved as Sgt. Wesley Shifflett, a 7-year veteran of the department, and Police Officer First Class James Sadler, an 8-year veteran, on March 4 — exactly 10 days after the shooting, as required by its policy.
Shifflett and Sadler were assigned to the Tysons Urban Team, a 12-officer unit based in Tysons Corner Center that was introduced in 2013. They both have certificates of valor from the Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce, which honored Shifflett in 2020 and Sadler in 2018.
They’re currently on restricted duty status as criminal and administrative investigations into Johnson’s shooting continue.
The identification of the officers hasn’t changed the Johnson family’s desire to see the body camera video or have the shooting investigated by an entity outside the police department, Crews told FFXnow.
The FCPD announced on Friday that the D.C.-based Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) will examine officer-involved shootings since 2021, but the review will focus on overall trends, rather than specific incidents.
“I don’t have a comment about that,” Melissa Johnson said when asked about the PERF review. “Let the police take care of what they need to do to earn public trust or to police themselves.” Read More
