Fairfax County police officer shoots, kills woman in distress armed with knife

RESTON, Va. - Fairfax County Police say one of their officers shot and killed a woman at her apartment door Monday after she attacked him with a knife. It's the county's first police officer-involved shooting in more than a year and a half. 

It happened around 10 a.m. in an apartment and retail community on Sunrise Valley Drive in Reston. Fairfax County police called here to do a welfare check on a woman in distress.

"We know this woman has family and friends and the loss of life is something that we all regret. Our police officer acted valiantly. He certainly exhibited some grace under pressure," Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis said.

Davis says he's seen the body-worn camera footage. One of his officers fatally shot a woman in the hallway outside her third-floor apartment after she cut him with a knife after he knocked on her door to see whether she was ok.

"She’s 33 years old. She’s 6’5", 330 pounds. She was coming after him with a knife. After she’d already cut him at least once, he told her on a number of occasions — I counted at least eight —to back up, back up, please back up," Chief Davis said. "She didn’t. She kept coming and coming and coming and coming and he discharged his firearm. She collapsed and was transported to a local hospital and pronounced dead."

Davis says Prince William County Police called them after hearing from the woman's mental health provider who expressed concerns about her state of mind.

"This woman is a mental health consumer. We know that. We’ve interacted with her on a number of occasions this year. In fact, we interacted with her yesterday when she was yelling at a man who was walking his dog. We did not make an arrest because no crime had occurred," Davis said. 

Marvin Somoza lives and works from home in this apartment community in Reston Heights.   

"You want to feel safe where are you…where you live, right?" Somoza said. "So I think a lot of the tenants right now might be feeling unsafe."

Last month, a member of the Gold’s Gym in the same area was shot and killed by another gym member in the middle of the day.

"I actually attend this gym and I remember a few days after that it was kind of empty. It took time for people to start coming back a little bit," Somoza said.  "I’m sure the same thing is going to start happening with the move-in and move-out rates around here too."

Police say the officer who fired his weapon multiple times here Monday is a veteran officer with crisis intervention training.

 "Our officers received the world-class training that’s available to our profession when it comes to dealing with people or in a state of crisis and we train that way. We value life above all else but we also value the lives of our police officers," Davis said. 

"When our police officer is attacked by a woman with a knife he has to protect himself and the community from that type of unprovoked violent attack and our officer was a victim of an unprovoked violent attack today," he continued. 

Police have not released the identities of the woman or the officer at this time. He's expected to survive his injuries and will be on routine administrative leave while this shooting is investigated.

Large police response outside Reston apartment complex