FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va. — A Fairfax County police officer shot and killed a man who was actively stabbing his son-in-law inside an apartment, according to body-worn camera video released by the department.
The video, released during a news conference on March 19, shows officers responding to an apartment on Feb. 23 after 911 callers reported screams, an armed man and an injured woman banging on a door.
When officers arrived, they found an adult female victim outside the apartment suffering from severe trauma. After entering the apartment, officers encountered 54-year-old Chhatra Tapa armed with a knife and kneeling over an adult male victim, police said.
The video shows officers repeatedly ordering Tapa to drop the knife. When he did not comply and continued the assault, one officer fired multiple rounds.
Police said officers found three stabbing victims at the scene: an adult male and two adult females. A 1-year-old child inside the apartment was not injured.
Officers immediately began providing medical aid to the victims and the suspect until Fairfax County Fire and Rescue personnel arrived. Tapa was pronounced dead at the scene. The three victims were taken to a hospital in life-threatening condition, and the two adult women later died.
‘A bloodbath’
At the news conference, Chief Kevin Davis said the video confirmed what officers walked into that morning.
“I described it on the day of, on February 23rd, with snow falling, as a bloodbath,” Davis said.
He said the more he has learned about the case — and the more he has watched the footage — the more convinced he is that the officer’s actions stopped the violence from claiming even more lives.
“I wonder if, in fact, our 2-and-a-half-year veteran police officer saved a quadruple murder from happening,” Davis said. “If not for the actions of our police officer, heroic, decisive, disciplined actions, we would have had two more victims on our hands.”
Police said the surviving male victim was Tapa’s son-in-law. Davis said Tapa’s wife and daughter were killed in the attack.
Weapon identified as a dao
Davis said the suspect was armed with a dao, which he described as a Nepali chopping knife or cleaver designed for butchery and cutting dense bone. He said the blade was about 12 inches long, with a handle measuring about 4 1/2 inches.
For the officers entering the apartment, Davis said there was no time to hesitate.
The apartment was dark, and the bodycam footage shows officers moving quickly toward the attack already in progress. Davis noted that weapon-mounted lights helped officers see immediately as they entered.
He was also blunt when asked whether officers had other options.
“There were not. Absolutely not,” Davis said.
No clear motive identified
Police said investigators have not determined a motive.
Davis said there was no history of calls for service at the apartment and no known criminal history associated with Tapa. Investigators have learned Tapa had a history of mental health challenges, he said, but added that detectives have not identified any argument or confrontation that immediately preceded the killings.
“The only thing we do know, and I want to gently talk about this, is that he has a history of some challenges with mental illness from what our detectives and our victim services specialists now know. A lot of people fall into that category. So, that’s not necessarily a motive that’s concrete and carved into stone, but uh from what we know now, thanks to the surviving victim, the son-in-law, who miraculously survived that knife attack, and he’s spoken to detectives and others, there’s nothing that happened that morning,” Davis said.
Davis also noted that many people have mental health challenges, but it “doesn’t result in a slaughter.”
Davis also said the department’s wellness division is providing support to the officers involved and other personnel who responded to the scene.
Both responding officers were relatively early in their careers, and Davis said their response reflected the department’s scenario-based training.
“The training builds the muscle memory,” he said. “It ingrains in these officers what we expect them to do when lives are at risk.”
The 1-year-old child found inside the apartment was not injured, Davis said.
He said the child was initially placed with Child Protective Services and is now with a family member connected to the surviving victim, who suffered serious injuries in the attack.
