A man was shot by a Fairfax County police officer on Tuesday after grabbing the barrel of the officer’s gun. Police were responding to a domestic incident involving the man and his wife.
According to FCPD Chief Kevin Davis, officers received a call just before 10 a.m. from a woman in the 7000 block of Sutter Lane in Annandale. She described an altercation between herself and her husband. She told officers that her husband was harming himself with a knife and threatening to harm her.
When officers arrived at the scene, the woman pointed to a man running from the home and told officers it was her husband. Police believed the man had run into a wooded area and was armed with two knives.
Three officers and a K-9 dog searched the area for about 15 minutes. The man then “abruptly emerged from a bush” and grabbed the firearm an officer had at his side. “It took the officer two hands to pull his firearm back from the suspect,” Davis said. The officer did not lose possession of the gun.
The officer fired three times, and one round struck the suspect with “a graze wound,” Davis said. The suspect was taken to the hospital and treated for non-life-threatening injuries.
The incident was captured on multiple body-worn cameras. Davis said he has reviewed the footage “at least 50 times.”
Davis noted that the suspect — who has not been identified — has “a significant domestic violence past in the relationship with the wife, our 911 caller.”
Both knives were recovered. Officers plan to release the body camera footage within 30 days.
Feature image of Chief Kevin Davis, center, courtesy Fairfax County Police Department/Facebook
