Police say a McLean man stabbed four women after a crash on Interstate 495 before a trooper shot him.

ANNANDALE, Va. — A road rage call on the Capital Beltway in Fairfax County turned into a deadly stabbing Sunday afternoon when police say Jared Llamado attacked four women after a crash, killing one of them before a Virginia state trooper shot him.

Authorities say the violence unfolded on one of the region’s busiest highways, just south of Washington, and ended with two deaths, three women hospitalized with serious injuries and a separate investigation into the trooper’s use of force. The case also drew wider attention because the State Department later confirmed Llamado was a Foreign Service officer. Investigators say the women did not know him, and police have said the attack is not believed to be related to terrorism.

Virginia State Police said the episode began about 1:15 p.m. to 1:20 p.m. on March 1 in the southbound lanes of Interstate 495 near Exit 52, between Gallows Road and Little River Turnpike. Investigators believe a crash came first. Then, police say, Llamado got out and began stabbing people from another vehicle. Sarah Kober and her daughter, Jennifer Paxton, told NBC Washington that Llamado had sideswiped their SUV and appeared fixed on another car ahead of them. Paxton said they watched him weave through traffic behind that vehicle. When they pulled over, they said, they saw him begin the attack. Kober said she told her daughter to run because she feared they would be stabbed too.

By the time a state trooper reached the scene after a 1:17 p.m. dispatch for a reported road rage incident, police said four women had been stabbed and Llamado still had a knife. State police said the trooper was then confronted by Llamado and opened fire in self-defense. Llamado, 32, of McLean, was taken to a hospital with serious injuries and later died. The trooper was not injured. Witnesses described a chaotic stretch of highway, with drivers pulling over, emergency calls coming in from passing motorists and helicopters landing near the interstate as first responders rushed to treat the wounded and secure the scene.

Police later identified the woman who died as Michele Adams, 39, of Fairfax. The surviving victims were identified as Dana Bonnell, 36, Mary C. Flood, 37, and Heather Miller, 40. All three were hospitalized with serious injuries. Officials also said a dog stabbed during the incident died at the scene and belonged to Llamado. A witness interviewed by local television described seeing victims separated on the roadside and covered in blood. Another detail sharpened the randomness of the attack: investigators said none of the women were inside Llamado’s vehicle, and the preliminary investigation found he did not know them before the encounter on the Beltway.

The setting gave the attack an immediate regional impact. The southbound main lanes of the Capital Beltway shut down for hours Sunday as investigators processed the scene near Inova Fairfax Medical Campus and worked to reconstruct what happened. Traffic backed up for miles. Scanner traffic cited by local outlets suggested the first reports described a property-damage crash that quickly escalated into stabbings. Cellphone and social media video circulated afterward, though at least one outlet said it had not independently verified the footage and chose not to air the most graphic portions. What remains unclear is how the crash began, why Llamado targeted the women in the other vehicle and whether anything in the minutes before the stabbing can explain the escalation.

The case now sits in two tracks. State police said the Fairfax Field Office of the Bureau of Criminal Investigation is examining the officer-involved shooting, and the trooper who fired has been placed on administrative leave while that review continues. Separately, investigators are still working through the crash and stabbing sequence itself. The State Department confirmed Llamado worked as a Foreign Service officer and said in a statement that it was aware of the incident and extended condolences to those affected. No criminal charges will be filed against Llamado because he died after the shooting, but the investigative findings are expected to determine the final account of the crash, the stabbing and the trooper’s response.

Author note: Last updated March 31, 2026.