Two men were shot and injured Tuesday evening in Hybla Valley, and Fairfax County police are still searching for the man they believe pulled the trigger. Officers responded to the 7700 block of Richmond Highway around 5:20 p.m. after reports of gunfire, finding one man wounded at the scene and a second nearby, both with non-life-threatening injuries.
What Police Know So Far
According to FOX 5 DC, Fairfax County police described the suspect as a Hispanic man with facial hair who was last seen wearing a black hoodie, black pants and gray shoes. Investigators believe the suspect and the two victims knew each other, and the department's report indicates detectives consider the shooting an isolated incident rather than a random attack. Police have asked anyone with information to contact Fairfax County police.
The block sits along a stretch of Richmond Highway anchored by Mount Vernon Plaza, a busy commercial strip that draws heavy foot and vehicle traffic, as Greater Alexandria Patch has previously reported. Separately, WUSA9 confirmed that police publicly announced the shooting at 5:21 p.m. after finding the two injured men, who were acquainted with the shooter, and likewise categorized the incident as isolated.
A Familiar Stretch of Richmond Highway
Tuesday's shooting is the latest in a string of gun violence to hit this same commercial corridor. Just weeks earlier, on August 25, FCPD arrested a 24-year-old man on felony malicious wounding and firearm charges after a non-fatal shooting stemming from a verbal argument among acquaintances on nearby Fordson Road, according to FFXnow. In August 2023, a woman was critically wounded in a shooting inside a vehicle in a shopping center parking lot in that same 7700 block, resulting in malicious wounding charges against a 29-year-old man, FOX 5 DC reported at the time — an incident in which an infant inside the vehicle was uninjured and police recovered a firearm at the scene.
Further back, FCPD News reported that in January 2022, Mount Vernon District officers arrested a 20-year-old suspect following two connected shooting incidents along Richmond Highway in Hybla Valley that left one person dead and another shot in the eye, with the suspect apprehended shortly afterward in a nearby Taco Bell parking lot.
Investigators Lean on Cameras and Crime Center
Public safety along Hybla Valley and the eastern Richmond Highway corridor falls under the Fairfax County Police Department's Mount Vernon Police District Station, which handles patrol and criminal investigations for several Route 1 communities, per FCPD News. Detectives working the case have access to the department's 24/7 Real-Time Crime Center, launched in April 2024, along with a voluntary camera registry program started in early 2025 that lets investigators quickly pull private surveillance footage during active investigations — tools Hoodline previously detailed in coverage of a separate Groveton shooting in the same police district.
If the suspect is eventually caught and charged, Virginia law carries steep exposure. Malicious wounding with intent to maim, disfigure, disable or kill is a Class 3 felony under Virginia Code § 18.2-51, punishable by five to 20 years in prison and fines up to $100,000. Using or displaying a firearm while committing that felony adds a mandatory minimum three-year sentence under Virginia Code § 18.2-53.1 that must run consecutively and cannot be suspended by a judge.
Broader Focus on the Corridor
The shooting also lands in a corridor that county officials have recently flagged for other public-safety attention. Fairfax County supervisors selected the Richmond Highway corridor near Lockheed Boulevard in Hybla Valley as one of two initial test areas for an automated vehicle-noise monitoring pilot program set for 2027, citing high commercial traffic and community complaints, Hoodline reported two days before the shooting. As of Tuesday evening, the suspect in this latest shooting remained at large, and no additional updates on his identity or whereabouts had been released.
