A 17-year-old has been charged with killing a Virginia couple, and is in the hospital with life-threatening, self-inflicted gunshot wounds, police say.
The couple, Scott Fricker, 48, and his wife, Buckley Kuhn-Fricker, 43, of Reston, were found dead in their home early Friday morning, according to the Fairfax County Police Department.
Authorities did not identify the teen but said he was from nearby Lorton and knew the victims.
“The preliminary investigation determined the suspect, who knows the residents of the home, got inside and was then confronted by the couple. The suspect shot them both and then himself,” Fairfax County police said in a press release, adding that four other family members were home at the time and were not injured in the shooting.
The mother of one of the victims told NBC Washington that the suspect was the couple’s daughter’s boyfriend. She said that in recent days, the couple had discovered that the boy was an alleged Nazi supporter.
“My daughter and her husband found out about a lot of the Nazi stuff just this past week, and they forbid their daughter to see him again,” Janet Kuhn, the mother of Buckley Kuhn-Fricker, told NBC Washington.
Calls to Kuhn from NBC News on Sunday went unanswered. Fairfax County police did not immediately return an inquiry seeking more information on the suspect.
Buckley Kuhn-Fricker was an elder care expert and licensed attorney, according to her company website. Friends and family described her to the Washington Post as tolerant and committed to civil rights and social justice.
A friend who spoke on condition of anonymity to the Post recalled Kuhn-Fricker fretting over her daughter’s relationship and saying, “We can’t allow her to see someone associated with Nazis … We don’t associate with hate groups in our house.”
The killings stunned residents of Reston, a D.C. suburb just over 20 miles away from the Capitol.
“It’s amazing, because the loudest thing that happens around here is the occasional barking dog,” a neighbor, Bill Aylward, told NBC Washington.