Background: Body camera footage shows the moments before a police officer shoots a stabbing suspect at a Mantua, Virginia, home (Fairfax County Police Department). Inset: Chhatra Thapa (Fairfax County Police Department).
Virginia police have released body camera footage of an officer's response to a family's home, shedding more light on the "bloodbath" that allegedly occurred there.
Chhatra Thapa, 54, fatally stabbed his wife, 52-year-old Binda Thapa, and daughter, 33-year-old Mamta Thapa, on Feb. 23, the Fairfax County Police Department announced at the time. The suspect also allegedly attacked his son-in-law.
The harrowing scene, as officers tell it, began that snowy day around 5 a.m. at the Margate Manor apartment complex on the 3900 block of Persimmon Drive in Mantua, Virginia. The son-in-law was outside, clearing snow off his car, when he heard a "commotion" inside the apartment where he lived with his wife, his in-laws, and his 1-year-old son.
The son-in-law called 911 and headed into the apartment to investigate. Around the same time, a neighbor also called authorities. She described to Washington, D.C., CBS affiliate WUSA what she heard.
"That poor woman was banging on the door with all her force and screaming for help, and I was considering opening the door, but my husband said that we have kids, and you don't know if it's a crazy person, we don't know who it is, so I just immediately called 911 as quick as I could," Ariana Eddleman said of Mamta Thapa. "I believe she had already fell because when I looked out the peephole I couldn't see anything, but she was still banging."
The son-in-law entered his home to find his wife with multiple stab wounds and his father-in-law with a 10-inch "curved dagger" that also resembled a "meat cleaver," Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis said during a press conference last month. Chhatra Thapa was in the process of stabbing his wife after already having stabbed his daughter, police said, "and then the father-in-law turned the knife on his son-in-law."
Fairfax County police officers were dispatched to the scene. On Thursday, the Fairfax County Police Department released the body camera footage of the officer who opened the door of the family's home and came face-to-face with the suspect.
The video begins with him exiting his law enforcement vehicle and hustling toward the apartment building. Another officer's SUV is already parked. Snow is all over the ground and surrounding cars.
An apparent woman's screams can be heard as the officer gets closer. He then meets up with his fellow officer.
"Ma'am, are you able to come upstairs?" the officer asks.
To the right, across from the Thapas' apartment, is the front door of another apartment — ostensibly that of the neighbors whom Mamta Thapa begged for help — covered in blood. A woman's screams continue, and the officer focuses on the apartment to the left, where there is also apparent blood.
"I hear a kid screaming inside," the officer says before banging on the door. "Fairfax County police, open the door!" he yells as the other cop holds his own weapon and flashlight.
The officer wearing the camera opens the door and raises his weapon as a man appears to yell something. Amid heavy breathing, the officer sees the suspect across a cluttered living room covered in apparent blood.
The suspect — appearing to be holding something and with blood on his hand — stares forward.
"Hey, put the knife down! Drop the knife! Do it now!" the officer screams. "Drop the knife!"
As the man raises the blade and strikes down, the officer shoots him five times, killing him. A baby's cries can be heard, and the officer picks him up and takes him further away from the carnage.
While the area surrounding the baby is blurred in the video, the police chief said last month that as the officers entered the apartment, they saw Chhatra Thapa "literally in progress stabbing his son," suggesting the son-in-law was between his baby and his father-in-law during the police confrontation.
The 1-year-old child was physically unharmed by the "bloodbath," as Davis described it. Detectives took the boy into protective custody, and with the help of child protective services, found "an appropriate family placement."
Mamta Thapa, the daughter, and Binda Thapa, the mother, were brought to a local hospital where they were pronounced dead. The son-in-law was brought to an area hospital "in life-threatening condition." His present condition is unclear.