Former Virginia lieutenant governor kills wife, shoots himself, police say

April 16 (Reuters) – Former Virginia Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax fatally shot his wife before killing himself in their northern Virginia home shortly after midnight, local law enforcement officials said on Thursday.

The murder-suicide seemed to stem from a domestic dispute related to the couple’s ongoing divorce, Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis told reporters hours afterward. The couple’s teenage children were home at the time of the shootings.

The former lieutenant governor and one-time rising star in the Democratic Party was “recently served some paperwork associated with an upcoming court proceeding [and] that apparently led to this incident,” Davis said. 

Less than two years after Fairfax was elected alongside former Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, two women accused Fairfax of sexually assaulting them in 2000 and 2004. Fairfax denied the allegations, saying the encounters were consensual.

Fellow Virginia Democrats pressured Fairfax to resign and many of his staff quit after the allegations surfaced, but he ultimately served his full term.

Fairfax largely dropped out of the public eye after he lost the Democratic primary race for Virginia governor in 2021. His term in office ended the following year. 

At some point while Fairfax and his wife were separated but still living together, Fairfax’s wife had installed cameras throughout the home, said Davis, the police chief, on Thursday. In January, Fairfax called police claiming his wife had assaulted him, but footage from the cameras proved that false, according to Davis.

Davis said he believed the cameras were still operational during Thursday’s events. He said the shootings were reported to 911 by one of the Fairfax children, both of whom are now with other family members.

(Reporting by Julia Harte; Editing by Aurora Ellis)