For so many parents who are well into adulthood and raising families, if they’re lucky enough to have their parents close by and operating as a true fixture in their kids’ lives, they often consider themselves blessed. Those feelings of gratitude were likely completely shattered for a Virginia family who has suffered an unthinkable tragedy that’s been called a “bloodbath.” A man in his 50s was shot and killed by police after using a meat cleaver to kill his wife and adult daughter in Virginia. The attacker’s son-in-law also was in the apartment and was hospitalized in “grave” condition.
A woman in her 30s and her mother are dead after her father fatally stabbed them inside their residence in Mantua, Virginia, on February 23, 2026, People reported. The man’s wife and daughter were declared dead after being taken to the hospital.
The Fairfax County Police Department posted a video press conference to its Facebook page that featured Chief Kevin Davis giving a briefing on the case. He explained that in the early morning hours on Monday, the son-in-law was outside clearing some snow off his vehicle when he heard “a disturbance” coming from inside their apartment. After calling 911, the son-in-law reentered the home and found his wife and mother-in-law bleeding from stab wounds caused by a knife the chief described as resembling a “meat cleaver.”
Davis noted that when the son-in-law was “confronted by the bloodbath of a scene” upon entering the apartment, the couples’ 1-year-old baby was in the middle of all the chaos. According to People, the son-in-law “jumped to intervene in a bid to save their lives and was himself attacked.”
The attacker was stabbing his son-in-law when responding officers arrived to the apartment on Persimmon Drive, per 7News. The police chief explained during the news conference that “a life was in a process of literally being taken when [a] police officer discharged [his] firearm” at the man in his 50s.
Authorities immediately performed CPR on the man, but he was declared dead at the scene, 7News reported. The baby that was inside the residence has been placed with Child Protective Services.
Police have said there were no prior calls for service or domestic violence at this home, but they will investigate “what turmoil” would “compel anyone to butcher family.”
Our thoughts are with the victims’ loved ones, and we hope the baby finds a safe and loving home.
If you or someone you know has been the victim of domestic abuse, you can find help and support at DVIS.org, the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or by contacting your local women’s shelter (domesticshelters.org).
