Fairfax County police on Monday identified a department recruit who died by apparent suicide Sunday, an incident that has prompted an internal investigation by the department to determine if responding officers handled it properly.
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Fairfax County police launch internal probe after deaths of recruit and wife
Matthew Farberov, 28, died of a gunshot wound shortly after 1:30 a.m. Sunday in his Mount Vernon area home, police said. Officers were initially called to Farberov’s home around 8:10 p.m. for a report of a shooting.
Officers found Farberov’s wife with a gunshot wound from an apparent suicide attempt, police said. She was rushed to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead. Fairfax County police are not naming the woman at the request of her family.
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Officers found multiple guns inside the couple’s home.
Farberov was distraught and police offered him mental health help, but he refused, police said. Officers left Farberov around 1:30 a.m., and he called 911 a short time later and asked for officers to return to his home, police said. Farberov was found dead from a gunshot wound that appeared to be self-inflicted, police said.
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Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis has ordered an internal probe of the incident to examine how officers handled it and determine whether they should have attempted to confiscate the guns from Farberov’s home under a Virginia red-flag law that allows weapons to be seized from people that pose a danger to themselves or others.
Police said there was no update on the internal probe Monday. A state medical examiner will conduct autopsies on Farberov and his wife to determine the manner and cause of their death.
Farberov was scheduled to attend the police academy in the coming weeks.