HERNDON, Va. — Two people are dead after a stabbing and shooting occurred inside a Fairfax County home Friday morning. According to police, a man told 911 dispatchers that he shot a man who had just stabbed his wife.
Officers with the Fairfax County Police Department (FCPD) were called to 13200 block of Stable Brook Way in Herndon just after 8 a.m. When officers arrived they found five people in the home – four adults and a 4-year-old child.
One man, later identified as 39-year-old Joseph Nathan Ryan, was found shot, and pronounced dead at the scene. A woman with stab wounds, 37-year-old Christine Ann Banfield, was taken to the hospital for treatment, where she died from her injuries.
FCPD Police Chief Kevin Davis said that police received two 911 calls Friday morning. The first call was a 911 hang-up. During the second call, a man told dispatchers that he'd just shot a man who stabbed his wife.
Both calls came from the cellphone, which police later determined was owned by the family's 22-year-old au pair. Police believe she made the first call, and then both the au pair and the husband, an unidentified 38-year-old man, spoke during the second call.
Davis said the au pair is speaking with detectives, but the husband is currently declining to speak with detectives.
There was no forced entry at the home. Davis said he could not say why Ryan was there, but that he did not believe the man was a stranger to the family.
He added that there are no suspects being sought and that they're working to determine who is responsible for what. Detectives are continuing to interview and process evidence recovered from the scene to determine the relationship between the involved parts and the circumstances that led up to the two fatalities.
All parties involved have been accounted for, police said, and there is no apparent ongoing threat to the community.
"Just a horrible, horrible incident that has obviously upset this entire community," Davis said.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner will conduct the autopsies in the coming days to determine the cause and manner of death.
Anyone with information regarding these incidents is to contact the Major Crime Bureau at 703-246-7800.
WATCH: See Davis' full press conference below.