Former Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, a Democrat whose tenure was marred by sexual assault allegations, shot and killed his wife, Cerina Fairfax, inside their home and then killed himself, police said.
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.
Fairfax County police responded to the home in Annandale, Virginia, shortly after midnight Thursday, where they found a man and woman dead inside, police said earlier. The same firearm appears to have been used in both shootings, Davis said.
Two bodies could be seen being removed from the home in body bags on stretchers around 10 a.m. Thursday.
The shooting stemmed from an ongoing domestic dispute surrounding “what seems to be a complicated or messy divorce,” Davis said.
Cerina Fairfax filed for divorce on July 18, 2025, and the case status is pending, according to Fairfax County Circuit Court records. A show cause order issued April 10 directed Justin Fairfax to appear in court on April 21, the records show.
Former Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax kills his wife, then himself
Former Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax kills his wife, then himself
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Detectives have reviewed the incident using “a lot of cameras,” which were set up inside the home as part of the couple’s ongoing divorce proceedings, Davis said. He noted that a call to police by Justin Fairfax in January, alleging assault by his wife, was not corroborated.
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. The couple had been living together in separate bedrooms while separated, he 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. “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.
“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. “So, very sad for this community … a lot of people who know the Fairfax family — everybody’s shocked. We’re shocked.”
Fairfax served as lieutenant governor under Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam from 2018 to 2022. He also ran for governor of Virginia in 2021. He returned to practice law after serving as lieutenant governor, while his wife worked as a dentist, according to Davis.
Sexual assault allegations against Fairfax in 2019 came during a tumultuous time for Virginia politics, shortly after Northam was accused of appearing in blackface in a decades-old photo. As the Northam scandal played out, two women accused Fairfax of sexual assault — the first becoming public on a conservative website that covers Virginia politics and the second in a Washington Post story.
Fairfax repeatedly denied the allegations and called for investigations into the accusations, saying he was “confident” it would clear his name.
In recent years, the former lieutenant governor was twice sued in “warrant in debt” cases tied to thousands of dollars in unpaid debts, Virginia court records show.
Capital One bank filed a warrant in debt, a type of civil lawsuit in Virginia, against Fairfax in October 2024 for a principal amount of $5,922.58, according to Fairfax County General District Court records. In May 2025, Discover Bank filed a warrant in debt against Fairfax for $23,871.31, according to court records.
The cases both resulted in default judgments in favor of the banks, the records show. A default judgment occurs when the defendant does not respond to the court summons or appear in court.
Glasser and Glasser, a Norfolk-based law firm that represented the banks in each case, did not immediately respond to a CNN request for comment.
This is a developing story and will be updated.