Fairfax County police say an officer fired after repeated commands failed to stop a man from stabbing his son-in-law inside the apartment.
MANTUA, Va. — A Fairfax County police officer who fatally shot a man during a family stabbing attack in Mantua remains under review after investigators said the suspect ignored commands and kept stabbing a third victim inside the home.
The Feb. 23 case has drawn attention for two reasons at once: the killings of two women inside a family apartment and the officer-involved shooting that ended the attack. Police identified the suspect as Chhatra Thapa, 54, and the women killed as his wife, Binda Thapa, 52, and daughter, Mamta Thapa, 33. The surviving victim, the women’s husband and son-in-law, was left in life-threatening condition. A child inside the apartment was not hurt. Together, those facts have made the case one of the county’s most closely scrutinized violent crimes of the year.
Authorities say the attack began before dawn at the Margate Manor apartments in the 3900 block of Persimmon Drive. The son-in-law had been outside clearing snow off his car when he heard a disturbance from inside the apartment. Chief Kevin Davis said the man called 911 and then went back in, where he found his wife already wounded and his father-in-law attacking his mother-in-law. Police say the weapon was a long curved knife, variously described as a curved dagger or a blade resembling a meat cleaver. The father-in-law then turned the knife on the son-in-law, police said. By the time officers reached the apartment at about 5:06 a.m., the emergency was not over. Investigators said one wounded woman was outside, a second was inside, and the suspect was kneeling over the male victim and still using the knife when officers came through the door.
Davis said the first officer on entry gave repeated commands to drop the knife. Instead, police say, the suspect continued the assault. One officer fired, striking Chhatra Thapa multiple times in the upper body. He was pronounced dead at the scene despite aid from officers and medics. Binda Thapa and Mamta Thapa were taken to a hospital, where they died. The son-in-law survived and was hospitalized in life-threatening condition. Police later named the officer who fired as PFC Nicholas Brazones, a Mason District officer with 2.5 years on the force. Davis publicly backed the officer’s actions soon after the shooting, saying body camera footage showed him doing what the department and community would expect in an active attack. Even so, officials stressed that the case remained preliminary and subject to revision as evidence was collected and reviewed.
That review process is now central to what comes next. The Fairfax County Major Crimes Bureau is conducting the criminal investigation into the use of force, and Internal Affairs is running a separate administrative investigation. Police said the criminal case file will go to the Office of the Commonwealth’s Attorney, while the administrative review will also be examined by the Independent Police Auditor. Such overlapping reviews are standard after a fatal police shooting, but in this case they carry extra weight because the officer fired inside a residence during a chaotic scene with multiple victims and a child nearby. On March 19, the department released body-worn camera footage from the incident and said its understanding of the facts could still change as more evidence is analyzed. The video release answered some basic questions about timing and commands, but it left unresolved the deeper issue of why the family violence began.
Police have disclosed little about the background of the family or whether officers had previously been called to the home. Publicly, the department has focused on the immediate sequence of events: the son-in-law outside in the snow, the emergency calls, the officers’ rapid arrival, the knife attack still in progress and the shots that followed. That narrow account is enough to outline the legal and tactical questions under review, but not enough to explain the emotional and personal collapse inside the apartment. Davis said he could not imagine what would drive a person to attack his own family in that way. The apartment also housed a 1-year-old boy, whom detectives removed safely. Child Protective Services and county victim services arranged family placement, underscoring that the case did not end when the shooting stopped. For surviving relatives, investigators and county agencies, the aftermath includes trauma care, evidence review and the slow work of establishing a complete record.
The body camera release also shifted the case from breaking news to documented public record. That move matters because it gives residents, lawyers and oversight officials more than secondhand descriptions of the shooting. It also places pressure on investigators to align every future conclusion with the evidence now visible. Police have not announced any pending criminal charge because the suspected attacker died at the scene. The main unresolved question is no longer who carried out the stabbings, but whether every step of the police response will be found lawful and within policy. Until those final findings are issued, the Mantua case remains both a homicide investigation and an active accountability review.
No final ruling had been released on the officer’s actions, and police had not publicly identified a motive for the killings. The next formal milestone is the completion of the county’s criminal, administrative and independent oversight reviews.
Author note: Last updated March 24, 2026.