Husband charged in Fairfax Co. shooting that left wife dead

The Fairfax County, Virginia, police said Monday that the shooting in the Alexandria section Sunday that left a woman dead and her husband badly wounded was the result of the husband shooting her, then himself.

The police said they got a report at about 3:15 a.m. Sunday about a shooting. When officers got to the house on Central Park Circle, in Mount Vernon, the police said, they heard a gunshot and went inside to find Daphne Saunders-Johnson, 59, and her husband, James Johnson, 62, wounded.



They were both taken to a hospital, where Saunders-Johnson died. Johnson is in what the police called critical condition but is stable. Detectives believe Johnson shot Saunders-Johnson and then himself. A gun was found in the house.

Johnson has been charged with second-degree murder and the use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, the police said.

In Monday’s statement, the police left the number for the 24-hour Domestic Violence Hotline: 703-360-7273; TTY 711.

Rick Massimo

Rick Massimo came to WTOP, and to Washington, in 2013 after having lived in Providence, R.I., since he was a child. He's the author of "A Walking Tour of the Georgetown Set" and "I Got a Song: A History of the Newport Folk Festival."

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