The teenager who allegedly shot and killed a 14-year-old boy during a fight in a parking lot in the McNair area of Fairfax County, Virginia, this week turned himself in to police late Thursday and has been charged with murder.
Ismael Cruz-Delcid, 18, of Herndon, is being held without bond at the county jail on a charge of second-degree murder and other related charges.
“The life of a 14-year-old child was simply not lost the other day — it was taken by a gunman who intentionally shot and killed one of our children,” Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis told reporters at a news conference Friday morning.
Police said they could not identify the 14-year-old boy who was killed, citing Virginia law.
Fairfax County Public Schools Superintendent Michelle Reid said the boy was a “student in good standing” at Westfield High in Chantilly.
“Our prayers go out to his family and all those impacted by this tremendous loss,” Reid said during the news conference.
Police are still investigating the motive for the shooting.
It happened shortly after 3:35 p.m. Wednesday in the 13700 block of Coppermine Road in the McNair area of the county. Police said Cruz-Delcid showed up at the parking lot and got into a physical fight with the 14-year-old and another teenager.
At one point, police said Cruz-Delcid disengaged from the fight, then pulled out a gun and fired three rounds.
The 14-year-old was struck twice. The other teenager “narrowly escaped” being hit, Davis said.
Police said Cruz-Delcid and the teenagers knew each other, but they are still investigating what they were doing in the parking lot before the shooting and whether they planned to meet up there.
Fairfax County Deputy Police Chief Brooke Wright said detectives are poring through social media and electronics to figure out the relationship between the three.
Police said Cruz-Delcid showed up to the parking lot in a Honda Civic, which he left behind when he took off on foot after the shooting.
He remained on the run for more than 24 hours before a lawyer for Cruz-Delcid contacted police Thursday night and negotiated his surrender to police, which happened at about 11 p.m., the police chief said.
The surviving teenager is also a Fairfax County Public Schools student, and police said Cruz-Delcid is a recent graduate of the county’s Mountain View Alternative Learning Center.
‘Together, we must commit to the well-being of our children’
In a letter sent out to families on Friday, Fairfax Public Schools Superintendent Michelle Reid shared how the incident “deeply impacted” the school communities affected and shared her condolences.
Reid added that the school system’s administrative teams will continue to meet regularly with the SROs to review procedures to ensure students’ safety, as well as working to educate students about gun safety and the consequences of gun violence.
“None of us can do this alone. Together, we must commit to the well-being of our children by keeping them safe both at school and at home. We must have difficult conversations with our children about making good choices. The most important thing you can do is to be a good and active listener,” she wrote in the message.
WTOP’s Ciara Wells contributed to this report.
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