Man shoots himself at a Merrifield law firm

Police investigate a shooting in Merrifield. [FCPD]

A man entered a law firm at 8111 Gatehouse Road in Merrifield Sept. 27 and fatally shot himself, the Fairfax County Police Department reports.

Police have identified the shooter as John Francis Wood, age 52, of Vienna. Police would not say whether he was an employee or client at the firm, Maddox & Gerock PC, which specialized in divorce and family law.

“Initial calls came in to our dispatch center for shots fired at 4:50 p.m.,” the FCPD states. “Officers quickly responded to the scene and determined the shooting was isolated to a law office on the fourth floor.” The shooter “died of a self-inflicted gunshot. No one else was injured.”

Officers secured the building and evacuated hundreds of people, including children who were at the Falls Church Merrifield Preschool on the first floor of the building. The children were taken to Luther Jackson Middle School, where they were reunited with their parents, many of them extremely upset. According to news reports, parents had to walk past dozens of police officers, some with rifles, in order to get to their children.

“This is the absolute most horrific thing any parent or any member of the community . . . this was an active shooter . . . just traumatizing to everybody, included myself,” said Police Chief Edwin Roessler Jr. at a news briefing.

Maddox & Gerock is closed today. A statement issued by the firm on Facebook says, in part: “If you have seen the news tonight you will have some understanding of what our office endured this evening. We cannot comment further but all of our employees are safe and okay.”