A military doctor and his wife, a retired military nurse, were shot and killed Wednesday outside their home in Springfield, Virginia, police said. A search for the shooter or shooters and a car is underway.
The victims, Dr. Edward McDaniel Jr., 55, and Brenda McDaniel, 63, were killed outside their home in the 8000 block of Flint Street.
Both were military veterans. Edward McDaniel Jr. was an active duty colonel doctor at Fort Belvoir, police said. His wife was a retired military nurse in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps.
“This is tragic, brutal, vicious double murder,” Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis said at a news conference.
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Police believe relatives of the victims know the shooter or shooters. Fairfax County Police Major Ed O'Carroll said the killings were directly related to an incident at the same home earlier this week.
County police were called to the home at about 9:20 a.m. Officers responded within two minutes, Davis said.
At least one family member of the couple was home at the time of the crime, the police chief said.
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Police are searching for a light-colored 2018 Nissan Altima with Maryland license plate 1EF1479.
An aerial view of the scene from Chopper4 shows a leafy neighborhood.
Officers were called to the home Monday about an altercation and potential burglary in progress, Davis said.
On a dispatch call to responding officers, a dispatcher can be heard saying the caller and her husband were upstairs with a shotgun in their home. “The subject” was in the basement.
“Caller is advising the subject is after her son and that he is with them upstairs,” the dispatcher said.
Two days later, the parents, not the son, were killed.
The deaths mark the ninth and 10th homicides in Fairfax County this year so far, in an increase from the count last year at this time.
A $10,000 reward for information is being offered in this case.
Stay with NBC Washington for more details on this developing story.
