Fatality in Springfield After Officer Involved Shooting

UPDATE 1:34 a.m.: Police have the name of the man killed in the shooting. Joseph Anthony Croft, 49, was a resident of Springfield. .

UPDATE 8:07 p.m.: Virginia Tire & Auto manager Gabe Guarino witnessed the victim entering his store, as well as the shooting. He said a stabbed man entered the store, followed closely by a white male wielding a knife that was about six or seven inches long.

The man with the knife demanded to know where the first man was, then left, walking north on Backlick Road. Guarino said he followed him, until he saw police approach the man with the knife. According to Guarino, the man tried to charge a police officer with the knife, and was then shot.

"Obviously something's gotta be wrong with him," Guarino said, and added the man did not seem intoxicated or under the influence of drugs.

"Things are happening all the time around here," Guarino said.

A witness who only identified himself as "John" said the stabbing victim had been stabbed in the face.

UPDATE 7:38 p.m.: FCPD Lieutenant David M. Smith declined to confirm that the shot person was the suspect in the stabbing, but suggested that it was.

"Let me put it this way," Smith told Kingstowne Patch. "I'm not looking for anybody else.

UPDATE 7:24 p.m.: Fairfax County police say a policeman responded at 5:30 p.m. today to a call of a suspect in a stabbing. A policeman responding to the call shot a person allegedly brandishing a weapon who matched the description of the suspect, according to Shelley Broderick, Fairfax County Police public information officer. Police would not describe the weapon that was brandished.

Police were responding to a call of a person who was stabbed, sustaining non-life threatening injuries, near the 6600 block of Backlick Road.

Police are not releasing information about identity of the policeman or the fatality. Crime scene detectives are on the scene.

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A person was shot dead by a police officer in front of a Toyota car dealership this evening on Backlick Road in Springfield.

A police spokesperson said the shooting was related to a stabbing in front of a Goodyear Tire dealership earlier tonight.

The stabbing victim had non-life threatening injuries, police said.

Patch will update this article as more information becomes available.

Correction: The article incorrectly stated that police responded to a stabbing at a Goodyear store. In fact, the store is Virginia Tire & Auto.

Correction: The deceased man's name is Joseph Anthony Croft. Police initially said the deceased man's name was Joseph Anthony Craft, and that error was reflected in the article. We regret the error.