Three people — two in Prince William County and a third in Fauquier County — are dead following a mass shooting at home outside Manassas.
Detectives from both counties are jointly investigating the shooting, which initially began as a domestic-related incident at a home 10000 block of Ellis Road near Manassas, at 6:04 p.m. on Wednesday, January 6.
The investigation revealed that the man suspect shot four family members at home before fleeing in a family member’s car. When Prince William police officers arrived, they tended to the victims and then notified neighboring law enforcement agencies to be on the lookout for the suspect in the car.
Three of the four victims were taken to an area hospital with serious injuries, where they are expected to recover. The fourth victim, Eric Mark Mitchell, 55, was pronounced dead at the residence.
The surviving victims include a 76-year-old woman, a 56-year-old woman, and a 16-year-old male.
While investigating the initial shooting outside Manassas, Prince William County detectives learned another shooting that occurred Rectortown area of Fauquier County.
Police learned the shooting crashed his car and the shot and killed a man who stopped his car at the crash scene, and the suspect shot and killed the driver and then fled on foot, police said. Fauquier County sheriff’s deputies found the driver, who was pronounced dead on the scene.
The victim is undergoing an autopsy, and officials are waiting to wait until his family is notified before his identification is released to the press, said Fauquier sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. S.L. Lewis.
As detectives connected the two incidents, deputies with the Fauquier County Sheriff’s Office located the suspect near the crash scene suffering from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The suspect, identified as 21-year-old Asa Ellington Mitchell, of Prince William County, later died after shooting himself.
The investigation continues as Prince William County detectives work to determine what led to the initial shooting near Manassas, police said.
