Man Threatening Woman With Knife Is Fatally Shot by Officer, Police Say

A Fairfax County police officer fatally shot a man who was dragging a naked woman to a car at knifepoint early yesterday morning, police said.

Police went to the 9000 block of Piney Grove Drive, just outside Fairfax City, to investigate a possible domestic incident at 12:41 a.m., authorities said. Neighbors had reported hearing screaming and seeing people outside a home, police said.

When the man with the knife threatened the woman's life, an officer shot him once in the upper body, police said in a statement. The man -- identified as Vincent Ramon Jones, 46, of Burke -- was taken to Inova Fairfax Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said.

"The officer witnessed a citizen's life being threatened, and that's when he took the shot," said Officer Eddy Azcarate, a police spokesman.

The woman was identified as a 21-year-old Fairfax area woman. A second victim, a 26-year-old Fairfax area man, was found in the house beaten up, presumably by the suspect, police said. The victims were a couple, police said. They were treated at the hospital for injuries that were not life-threatening, police said.

"She was cut up pretty good," Azcarate said. "There were scrapes and cuts from the knife and the dragging and everything else."

The 28-year-old officer, a six-year member of the police department, was placed on administrative leave pending a routine internal investigation of the shooting, police said. His name was not released.

Police said the suspect knew the woman, but they did not say how. The motive for the attack remains under investigation, they said.

Judith Dittman, executive director of Alternative House, said the woman was receiving services through the nonprofit group's Assisting Young Mothers program and was living in one of the program's townhouses on Piney Grove Drive. The program assists homeless girls and women ages 16 to 24 who are pregnant or the mothers of small children, she said.

Employees of Alternative House were at the townhouse yesterday to check on the victim. Dittman and a neighbor said the woman has a 4-year-old son. Dittman declined to comment on the details of the incident but said she had spoken to the woman yesterday.

"As you might imagine, she's very upset and scared," Dittman said.