RICHMOND — Former Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax shot and killed his wife, Dr. Cerina Fairfax, inside their home and then killed himself shortly after midnight on Thursday, police said.
Fairfax, 47, was a rising star in Virginia politics before his ascent was derailed by sexual assault allegations in 2019.
The couple’s two teenage children were inside the home when the shootings occurred, Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis said, noting their son had placed the 911 call.
The shooting stemmed from an ongoing domestic dispute surrounding “what seems to be a complicated or messy divorce,” Davis said. It happened just over two weeks after Cerina Fairfax was granted primary physical custody of the couple’s children, according to court records.
Court records show that they had separated in 2024 nearly 20 years of marriage and that Cerina Fairfax had filed for divorce last summer, though they were living in the same house.
Cerina and Justin Fairfax were married in June 2006 and have two children, ages 16 and 14, according to the divorce filing.
A show cause order issued on April 10 directed Justin Fairfax to appear in court on April 21, the records show.
The deaths cast a pall over the family’s quiet Northern Virginia neighborhood, named Camelot, and shock rippled across the commonwealth, where Fairfax had been only the second Black person elected to statewide office.
Lieutenant governor from 2018 to 2022, Fairfax had hoped to become the next governor, and sought the Democratic nomination in 2021, But in 2019, early in his term as lieutenant governor, Fairfax had been accused of sexual assault by two women.
He denied the allegations, but he lost the 2021 primary to the former Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe and didn’t seek elective office again.
Recent court filings described how, since leaving office, Fairfax had increasingly struggled “with undefined emotional and psychological issues,” as Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Timothy J. McEvoy wrote in a March 30 order.
The judge described how Fairfax had withdrawn from the family, was drinking heavily and was leaving bills unpaid, while Cerina Fairfax, 49, a dentist who ran her own practice, took care of the children.
Cerina Fairfax “leaves an immeasurable void in the lives of all who knew and loved her,” said attorney Amy Spain, who previously worked with Cerina to file her divorce paperwork.
“It is an absolute tragedy that Cerina was taken from her children and family,” she said in a statement, describing Cerina Fairfax as a loving and devoted mother.
Fairfax appeared to have shot his wife several times in the basement of the home before running upstairs to the primary bedroom, where he shot and killed himself, Davis said.
“So tragic for the children to lose both parents, extra tragic for them to actually be in the home when it occurred,” Davis said Thursday morning. “Certainly a fall from grace for a relatively high-profile family that seemingly had a lot of things going in their favor.”
The children are being cared for by grandparents and other family members, with support from the Fairfax County Police Department’s victim services division, Davis said.
Source: Saudi Gazette