Station 17 paramedics prepare to place an injured man inside an ambulance. Terry Kang
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Tragedy "Domestic in Nature"
It’s not yet known what touched off the fight among the three men, Tuesday morning, inside a Chantilly home used as a childcare center. At least two of the men were stabbed and the third was pronounced dead at a hospital. Fairfax County police are still investigating and haven’t shared much information beyond the fact that the incident was apparently “domestic in nature.”
Click Photo for FlashChantilly — It’s not yet known what touched off the fight among the three men, Tuesday morning, inside a Chantilly home used as a childcare center. And at press time, the victims’ names hadn’t been released.
What is known is the result: At least two of the men were stabbed and the third was pronounced dead at a hospital. Fairfax County police are still investigating and haven’t shared much information beyond the fact that the incident was apparently “domestic in nature.”
“It was contained inside the residence and we’re not looking for anyone else,” said police spokeswoman Shelley Broderick. “There were other adults inside the home, at the time, plus two young children being cared for in the home. But they were not involved and were not injured.”
Police were dispatched to a two-story, single-family home in the Rockland Village community, June 25, around 11:19 a.m. It’s in the 4100 block of Travers Court. Upon arrival, officers found the three injured men, although police would not say where, specifically, in the house they were discovered.
They also declined to reveal what caused the dead man’s injuries or on what parts of their bodies any of the men’s wounds were sustained. Broderick said they were all transported from the scene by ambulance, but were taken to different hospitals.
She said all the victims seemed to be in critical condition, with “very significant injuries,” and she was notified about 3:15 p.m. that one had died. “The medical examiner will identify the person who’s dead and the manner of death,” said Broderick.
Besides police, county sheriff’s deputies plus ambulances from Centreville’s Fire Station 17 responded to the scene. Police immediately cordoned off the street with yellow tape and then stayed at the home for several hours after the incident.
They couldn’t go inside the house to search it until 3 p.m., or so, because they had to wait for a search warrant to be written and approved by a magistrate. Then they kept it under guard until the crime-scene investigators were finished.
Next-door neighbor Terry Kang has lived there four years and said it’s normally a peaceful neighborhood where “nothing much” ever happens. But it all changed Tuesday.
“I was coming back from playing soccer, around 11:30 a.m., when I saw about 30 police cars,” he said. “There were SUVs, bikes, cruisers, even an armored vehicle. I was like, ‘What happened? Is something wrong?’ Then I realized it was my next-door neighbors.”
Kang asked a police officer what was going on, but was told to go inside his house, so he did. But he kept watching the action and even saw police escort two little boys, 3 or 4 years old, from the home.
Then around noon, more police arrived, plus “two helicopters — one, fire department, and one, police,” said Kang. “I saw firefighters doing CPR on one man in front of the house. All three men were taken away on stretchers.”
He said the home’s occupants are a woman and her son, in his early 20s, and she runs a daycare center there. A detective eventually told him three men had been injured, but not how. “I saw them carry two rifles out of the house, but I didn’t hear any shots,” said Kang. “And then I heard on the news that they’d been stabbed.”
“I never saw three men there, just the woman who took care of the kids,” he continued. “I was shocked — they’re my neighbors.”
Misbah Basit, who’s lived around the corner from that home since September 2009, said the neighborhood is usually quiet — children play outside after school and neighbors help each other shovel snow. He said the woman and her son are “very nice, but didn’t speak to anyone. I think they rented the basement; I saw two men go there.”
As for the tragedy, he said, “This is a safe neighborhood. I never thought about something so terrible happening here.”
Anyone with information about this incident or the people involved is asked to contact Crime solvers at 1-866-411-TIPS/8477, e-mail www.fairfaxcrimesolvers.org, text “TIP187” plus a message to CRIMES/274637 or call police at 703-691-2131.