US officials believe the shooting related to the Democratic politician\u2019s ongoing divorce with Cerina Fairfax, a dentist.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Published On 16 Apr 2026<\/span>16 Apr 2026<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Virginia\u2019s former lieutenant governor, Justin Fairfax, has shot and killed his wife before taking his own life in an apparent murder-suicide, according to authorities in the United States.<\/p>\n The 47-year-old politician and his wife, 49-year-old dentist Cerina Fairfax, were found dead in their home in the Washington, DC, suburb of Annandale in northern Virginia. Their teenage son called the police shortly after midnight to report the crime.<\/p>\n list of 3 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis said on Thursday that the incident appears to have been related to the couple\u2019s ongoing divorce.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s very sad for this community,\u201d Davis said. \u201cA lot of people who know the Fairfax family. Everybody\u2019s shocked. We\u2019re shocked.\u201d<\/p>\n The Associated Press reported that Cerina and Justin Fairfax had separated in 2024 and filed for divorce last year, citing a court filing. Police indicated on Thursday that they were still living in the same home with their two children, both of whom were at home at the time of the shootings.<\/p>\n Fairfax was \u201crecently served some paperwork associated with an upcoming court proceeding\u201d, Davis explained. \u201cThat apparently led to this incident.\u201d<\/p>\n He added that Fairfax\u2019s wife had installed cameras in the home and that the former lieutenant governor had called the police in January, stating that his wife had assaulted him.<\/p>\n Footage from the cameras disproved that claim, according to Davis.<\/p>\n Fairfax, once seen as an up-and-coming figure in the state\u2019s Democratic Party, faced allegations of sexual assault, starting in 2019 while he was serving as lieutenant governor.<\/p>\n Despite resignations from his staff and calls to step down, Fairfax stayed on and served out the remainder of his term in office, until 2022. He denounced the allegations against him as false.<\/p>\n He ran for governor in 2021 but largely disappeared from politics after winning less than four percent of the vote.<\/p>\n Thursday\u2019s incident shocked Virginia, with officials expressing condolences for the family of the victims.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are keeping Cerina and Justin Fairfax\u2019s family \u2014 especially their two children \u2014 in our prayers as we all process this shocking and horrifying news,\u201d Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, Virginia\u2019s representatives in the US Senate, said in a joint statement.<\/p>\n The current Lieutenant Governor Ghazala Hashmi also called the news \u201cdevastating\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cMy thoughts are with their children, loved ones, and numerous friends,\u201d she said. \u201cAlong with so many in the [Virginia] Commonwealth, I am filled with sorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n US officials believe the shooting related to the Democratic politician\u2019s ongoing divorce with Cerina Fairfax, a dentist. Published On 16 Apr 202616 Apr 2026 Virginia\u2019s former lieutenant governor, Justin Fairfax, has shot and killed his wife before taking his own life in an apparent murder-suicide, according to authorities in the United States. The 47-year-old politician […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19251,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us-canada-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19250\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/2017-06-08T131939Z_1189275883_RC11B0FE7F20_RTRMADP_3_GULF-QATAR-JAZEERA-1714943623.jpg?resize=96%2C96&quality=80)
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