Jonathan David Ferreyra Agapito, 20, died after police say an employee stabbed him during a fight.
DUMFRIES, Va. — A Woodbridge family was mourning Jonathan David Ferreyra Agapito after police said the 20-year-old was stabbed to death during a fight with a gas station employee in Dumfries.
Ferreyra Agapito died early May 17 near the pumps at the Shell station on Dumfries Road. Police charged Michael Orlando Dickey, 42, with manslaughter after saying he used a knife during the confrontation. The case remains under investigation, with Dickey held without bond and key details about the argument still unreleased.
The public first learned Ferreyra Agapito’s name through a police death investigation, but relatives described a fuller life in the days that followed. A family fundraising message remembered him as a devoted son, brother and friend. Oscar Ferreyra said he was a “kind-hearted” person who put family first and touched others with warmth. The message asked for help with funeral costs, placing the family’s immediate burden beside the criminal case. Those words shifted attention from the crime scene alone to the person who died there. Ferreyra Agapito was 20, from Woodbridge and still early in adulthood when a late-night encounter at a gas station became the final event in his life.
The scene where he died was a routine public stop. Police said officers responded about 12:10 a.m. to the Shell station at 17250 Dumfries Road after a report of a stabbing. They found Ferreyra Agapito near the gas pumps with an upper-body wound. Emergency medical crews arrived, but he was pronounced dead at the scene. Investigators said he had been involved in a physical altercation with Dickey, an employee of the business. During the fight, police said, Dickey pulled out a knife and stabbed him once. The police statement did not say whether Ferreyra Agapito had come to the station as a customer, passenger, driver or for another reason.
The loss reached beyond the short timeline released by police. Friends and relatives used public messages to describe grief, funeral planning and the shock of a death that came without warning. “Life simply won’t be the same without him,” Oscar Ferreyra said in the family appeal. Such statements often become the first public record of a victim’s life, especially when authorities release only identifying information and facts tied to the charge. The family did not offer a competing account of the fight in the early reports. Instead, the messages focused on who Ferreyra Agapito was to the people closest to him and how sudden the loss felt.
The suspect, Dickey, was described by police as a 42-year-old employee at the station with no fixed address. He was taken into custody without incident and charged with manslaughter. Police did not say whether he was still on duty at the moment of the confrontation, whether he was working alone or whether other employees were nearby. They also did not release details about his job duties, his length of employment or any prior contact with Ferreyra Agapito. Those omissions leave the relationship between the two men unclear. Investigators have said only that they were in a physical altercation and that Dickey used a knife during it.
The location may help detectives answer questions the public account has not settled. The pump area at a gas station can include cameras, overhead lighting, customers, parked cars and store windows. Police did not say whether video from the Shell station recorded the fight, but investigators in cases like this often review footage to establish the order of events. Witness accounts may also be important if people saw the argument before it turned physical. Detectives may need to determine whether the fight moved from one part of the property to another, whether either man tried to retreat and how quickly the stabbing happened after the first words were exchanged. Those facts could shape both the criminal case and the family’s understanding of what happened.
The killing occurred in Dumfries, a Prince William County town in the greater Washington region. Dumfries Road connects local neighborhoods, stores and commuter routes, and gas stations along such roads can remain busy even late at night. Police did not describe any continuing threat after Dickey’s arrest and did not report additional victims. The first account did not mention a robbery or a wider disturbance. Instead, authorities described a direct confrontation between a young man and an employee at the business. That limited description left residents with a stark image: a public gas pump area turned into the site of a fatal stabbing minutes after midnight.
The legal process will move more slowly than the family’s grief. Dickey’s manslaughter charge means prosecutors will review whether the facts support that allegation and whether any change is needed as more evidence comes in. Early reports said he was held without bond, and no confirmed court date had been announced in the first public accounts. The defense will have a chance to respond through court filings and hearings. A judge may later consider bond, probable cause and other procedural issues. Police said the investigation was ongoing and asked anyone with information to contact the department, showing that detectives were still building the case after the arrest.
The medical and forensic record could also become important. The police description said Ferreyra Agapito suffered a single stab wound to the upper body and collapsed before first responders pronounced him dead. Medical examiner findings can document the cause and manner of death in greater detail, while forensic evidence can connect a weapon, clothing or blood patterns to the sequence described by investigators. Police did not say whether a knife had been recovered or tested. They also did not release any autopsy detail beyond the general location of the wound. Those records may become part of the court file as prosecutors move forward.
For Ferreyra Agapito’s relatives, the coming hearings will not change the fact of his death, but they may answer questions about the final minutes of his life. For Dickey, the same hearings will decide how the manslaughter charge proceeds and whether prosecutors present more evidence. The two families and the public now wait for the legal system to catch up with a tragedy that unfolded in minutes near the pumps.
Ferreyra Agapito’s relatives continued preparing funeral arrangements while waiting for more answers from investigators. Police had not released a full account of his final minutes.
Author note: Last updated June 18, 2026.