Fairfax County police on Thursday released body-camera footage of an officer firing five times at a man who had just fatally stabbed his wife and daughter, a dramatic encounter in February that the police chief said prevented at least one more death.
In the footage, Chhatra Thapa, 54, could be seen kneeling over one of his victims, a curved dagger in hand, inside an apartment in the county’s Mantua neighborhood after police officers who were responding to a 911 call burst through the door.
Police officer Nicholas Brazones yelled twice for Thapa to drop his knife. Thapa stared at him blankly, then brought the knife down again in a stabbing motion before Brazones fired five times, killing Thapa. As Thapa fell to the floor, his 1-year-old-grandson, whose image was blurred in the footage, began crying. Brazones moved the child away from Thapa.
“That’s quite a video to watch,” Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis said at a news conference Thursday. “I wonder if, in fact, our 2½-year veteran police officer saved a quadruple murder from happening.”
The stabbings occurred during a snowy February evening in a Northern Virginia suburb that is typically crime-free.
Police officials said at the time that they received a 911 call from a man who was outside an apartment where he lived with his wife, 1-year-old child and in-laws. The caller, later revealed to be Thapa’s son-in-law, said he was cleaning snow off his car in the parking lot when he heard a disturbance from inside his apartment. Another resident in the complex also called 911 to report an issue, police said.
When the son-in-law — whose identity has been withheld — went back inside the apartment, he found his wife suffering from stab wounds and saw his father-in-law stabbing his mother-in-law, police said.
Thapa then “turned the knife on his son-in-law,” Davis said in February.
Both Thapa’s wife, Binda Thapa, 52, and their daughter Mamta Thapa, 33, were taken to a hospital, where both died. The son-in-law remains hospitalized, Davis said Thursday. The 1-year-old boy was unharmed and was with Child Protective Services before being placed with a family member, he said.
Davis said that police do not yet have a motive for the stabbings and that there was no history of calls for service at the apartment or criminal history associated with Thapa. Davis said Thapa had a history of mental illness, citing detectives and victim services specialists.
The footage was released as an update to the Fairfax County police investigation of the double homicide. Davis said the county commonwealth’s attorney’s office will determine whether Brazones’s actions were lawful.
But, he said, it appeared the shooting was justified.
“If not for the actions of our police officer — heroic, decisive, disciplined actions — we would have had two more victims on our hands,” Davis said. “It’s sad. It’s tragic that the patriarch of a family would take the life of his wife and his daughter.”
Thapa used a dau — a Nepali chopping knife or cleaver that is designed for butchery or cutting dense bone. The blade is about 12 inches long and the handle is about four inches long, Davis said.
“Our young police officer not only saved lives, but he acted in compliance with the law,” Davis said. “Thapa had already stabbed his son-in-law several times and was going to keep stabbing him to death if not for the actions of our young police officer.”
Brazones is on restricted duty and an alternate duty status while the investigation runs its course, Davis said.
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