The man police fatally shot Monday morning in Fairfax County, Virginia, after he stabbed his wife, daughter and son-in-law has been identified as Chhatra Thapa, police said Wednesday.
Chhatra, 54, fatally stabbed his 52-year-old wife Binda and 33-year-old daughter Mamta and was kneeling over his son-in-law stabbing him when a police officer intervened by shooting Chhatra. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Both women were taken to a hospital, where they were pronounced dead. The son-in-law remains in the hospital after he was transported with life-threatening injuries.
Police also found a 1-year-old boy — the child of Mamta and the son-in-law — inside the apartment where the attack happened and took him into protective custody.
‘Butchering his family’
Officers responded to the apartment in the 3900 block of Persimmon Drive in Mantua, around 5 a.m. Monday for a reported domestic-related assault. They found one of the women who had been stabbed outside the apartment, then went inside to find Chhatra attacking his son-in-law, Fairfax County police said in a news release.
They also saw the other woman who was stabbed inside.
According to police, one of the 911 calls came from the son-in-law, who was outside clearing snow and rushed back inside after hearing a disturbance.
The son-in-law saw his wife had already been stabbed, and Chhatra was stabbing Binda, according to Police Chief Kevin Davis.
“Then the father-in-law turned the knife on his son-in-law,” Davis said.
Davis called it a case of a man “butchering his family.”
The officer who then shot Chhatra is a 2.5-year veteran of the force assigned to the Mason Police District, the department said. He’s been placed on restricted duty pending the outcome of criminal and administrative investigations.
The Major Crimes Bureau is conducting a criminal investigation into the use of force, and the Internal Affairs Bureau is conducting a separate administrative investigation, which will be subject to an independent review.
Body camera footage from the response to the attack will be released within 30 days and the name of the officer who shot Chhatra will be released within 10 days, according to police.
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