A Virginia couple was killed on their front lawn on Wednesday. Col. Edward McDaniel Jr. and his wife, retired Col. Edna McDaniel, were gunned down in front of their Springfield home. Both of them were esteemed military medical professionals, People Magazine reported. Luckily, the police captured two suspects within 24 hours.
Police were dispatched to the couple’s home on Monday, earlier in the week, in response to a possible burglary. Edna told officials that she and her husband were hiding in an upper level in the house and had a shotgun. They believed an intruder was in their basement. Two days later, the couple, who had children, was shot and killed.
At the time, McDaniel told officers that the burglary suspect was after their son, and he was hiding upstairs with the couple. According to Fox News, on Wednesday, as the husband and wife stepped outside for a short while, the suspects ambushed them and opened fire. The couple was pronounced dead on the scene.
On Thursday, Virginia police arrested 19-year-old DeAngelo Strand and, later in the day, apprehended Ronnie Marshall, 20, and charged them with two counts of second-degree murder. They were also charged with two counts of using a firearm in the commission of a felony. In total, eight charges have been filed in the McDaniel deaths.
“We’re here because two pillars of our community, of our country, really, we’re gunned down viciously in their own front yard,” Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis said at a news conference Thursday evening. Col. Edward McDaniel was an active duty internal medicine doctor, and his wife was a retired surgical nurse and colonel. Both were highly-decorated military personnel.
Officers believe at least one of the suspects was in the home during Monday’s emergency call.
At an arraignment on Friday, both suspects were held without bail.
The McDaniel homicides are the ninth and 10th murders in Fairfax County this year.
