A quiet stretch of North Arlington turned chaotic late Friday night when residents began reporting gunfire at four separate locations, sending police scrambling across the neighborhood before a traffic stop the next day led to an arrest. Eric Schaefer, 39, now faces six criminal counts tied to the string of shootings, though investigators say no one was hurt.
Shots Reported Across Four Sites in One Night
The shootings were first reported shortly before midnight Friday night in North Arlington, according to FOX 5 DC. Police received reports near Military Road and 31st Street North, as well as three other areas including 15th Street North, North Quebec Street and North Vermont Street — a spread that put officers responding to multiple scenes across the neighborhood in a short window of time.
At each of the four locations, officers recovered evidence confirming shots had been fired, the outlet reported, though remarkably, no one was injured in any of the incidents. That detail quickly became central to the investigation as detectives worked to determine whether the scattered reports were connected.
Traffic Stop Leads to Arrest
Schaefer was arrested Saturday after a traffic stop, the report states. He was subsequently charged with three counts of reckless handling of a firearm and three counts of discharging a firearm in public — six charges in total stemming from the overnight string of incidents.
Investigators believe the shootings were isolated incidents tied to an ongoing dispute between Schaefer and someone he knows, according to the same report. That framing suggests police do not view the case as a broader threat to the North Arlington community, even as the four-location spread rattled a neighborhood unaccustomed to gunfire on multiple streets in a single night.
What Virginia Law Says About Firing a Gun in Public
Virginia statute addresses the act of discharging a firearm in public spaces. Under Virginia Code § 18.2-280, willfully discharging a firearm in a street or in a place of public business or public gathering becomes a Class 6 felony when the conduct results in bodily injury to another person. It remains unclear whether that specific provision forms the basis of the charges Schaefer is now facing.
