Police are in a tense standoff on Richmond Highway in the Hybla Valley area with an armed woman in an incident that may be connected to the case of two missing Maryland women.
For the safety of the public, Richmond Highway–the major artery through the area–has been shut down for more than 10 hours as of 10 p.m.
Authorities said they were asked by another law enforcement agency to perform a welfare check in an area just up the street at around 11 a.m. They said they were checking for a missing person in potential danger.
Outside a Quality Inn Motel, they encountered a distraught woman.
“When we responded there, there was a woman who said she had been abducted, and the suspect vehicle had just fled. So we began searching the area, and that’s when one of our officers found the vehicle, and it led to a pursuit and ended here,” Lt. James Curry said. “She did display a firearm to the officers during that first traffic stop, and that’s led to the response that you see here.”
A crisis team made up of a mental health clinician and a police negotiator have been communicating with the woman, who is in a black SUV.
Police said they can’t release many details because they’re trying to get the woman safely out of the vehicle, which is on the other side of the armored personnel carrier. Authorities also said they would be there as long as it takes to resolve the situation safely.
Earlier Tuesday, 25-year-old Lauren Kingsbury was found safe in Fairfax County after she’d been missing since Friday. It was not immediately confirmed whether the standoff was related to Kingsbury’s disappearance.
