Justin Fairfax, the former lieutenant governor of Virginia whose political career was derailed by sexual assault allegations, shot and killed his wife inside their home early Thursday morning and then turned the gun on himself. Both were pronounced dead at the scene.
Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis confirmed the shooting to reporters Thursday morning, according to CNN. The couple’s two teenage children were inside the house in Annandale, Virginia, when it happened. Their son placed the 911 call.
What police say happened
Officers responded to the 8100 block of Guinevere Drive just after midnight. According to NBC Washington, Justin Fairfax, 47, shot his wife, Dr. Cerina W. Fairfax, multiple times in the basement of the home. He then went upstairs to the primary bedroom and used the same firearm on himself.
Chief Davis described it as a domestic dispute rooted in “what seems to be a complicated or messy divorce.” The couple had been living in separate bedrooms under the same roof while divorce proceedings were ongoing. Fairfax had recently been served paperwork showing when he was next due in court for the divorce case. Davis said that may have been “a spark.”
Cerina Fairfax had installed cameras throughout the home as part of the divorce proceedings. Detectives used that footage to reconstruct the sequence of events. Those same cameras previously helped disprove a claim Justin Fairfax made in January 2026, when he called police and alleged his wife had assaulted him. Davis said the footage showed the alleged assault never took place.
Children left without both parents
The Fairfax children were not physically hurt. They are currently being cared for by grandparents and other family members, with support from the Fairfax County Police Department’s victim services unit.
“So tragic for the children to lose both parents, extra tragic for them to actually be in the home when it occurred,” Davis said. He called it “certainly a fall from grace for a relatively high-profile family that seemingly had a lot of things going in their favor.”
A political career undone by scandal
Fairfax served as Virginia’s lieutenant governor under Gov. Ralph Northam from 2018 to 2022. His election was historic. He was just the second African American elected statewide in Virginia’s history, and many saw him as a future governor.
That trajectory collapsed in 2019 when two women accused him of sexual assault. Vanessa Tyson accused Fairfax of forcing her to perform oral sex during the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston. Meredith Watson alleged he raped her in 2000 when both were students at Duke University.
Fairfax denied both accusations, said the encounters were consensual, and called for an FBI investigation. He was never charged with a crime, but he lost the 2021 Democratic primary for governor and his political future effectively ended.
After leaving office, Fairfax returned to practicing law. His wife worked as a dentist. Court records reviewed by CNN show he had faced separate civil debt actions in recent years, including a $23,871 lawsuit from Discover Bank and a $5,922 case filed by Capital One. Both resulted in default judgments against him.
Community in shock
Davis said police had reviewed “a lot of cameras” inside the home as part of their investigation and found no indication of any threat to the broader community. A search warrant for the residence was being executed to recover all evidence, including the firearm.
“Half of America probably goes through divorce proceedings at some point in time and very, very rarely, thankfully, does it ever end up like this,” Davis said. “Everybody’s shocked. We’re shocked.”
Political figures in Virginia and across the country began reacting Thursday as news spread. The story drew renewed attention to ongoing debates around domestic disputes and political accountability.
