As a community, we will never recover from the killing of Fairfax Detective Vicky Armel.
Nor should we.
We see cops mowed down by the dozens in films and TV shows. Rarely does it happen in real life, in our towns. Never to a mom with two children.
This is a first. Perhaps there’s a way we can try to make it the last.
In mourning, we are left with two questions. We know the answer to one; we must find out about the other.
Though the gunman, Michael Kennedy, was killed Monday when police officers returned fire during his attack on the Sully District police station, we have some good clues to explain his actions.
Hours after the gun battle, Fairfax police officers searched the townhome where the 18-year-old lived with his family. According to a search warrant, they found notebooks with suicidal writings and Satanic symbolism. Kennedy had checked himself in and out of a psychiatric facility in Rockville; friends said he had become delusional and angry in the days before he crouched in the parking lot of the Sully station and unloaded round after round at police officers.
So we can assume that Michael Kennedy became unhinged, which is a scary conclusion since friends said he was a normal kind of guy.
But how do we explain Kennedy’s arsenal? In their search warrant, police described finding the following in Kennedy’s Centerville town house:
» A 12-gauge shotgun, loaded and leaning in a corner.
» A .30-caliber rifle.
» A .22-caliber rifle.
» Four other firearms; boxes of ammunition; and a bayonet on a nightstand.
These are the weapons Kennedy didn’t take to the Sully station. What he did take were seven guns, including the AK-47-type assault rifle, a high-powered hunting rifle and five handguns.
The question of where and how Kennedy got these firearms becomes much more important than why he turned them on police. As a community, we cannot control Kennedy’s murderous thoughts; but we can control how an 18-year-old comes into possession of at least 14 deadly weapons.
My guess is that Michael Kennedy bought his rifles and handguns in Virginia, one of the states that makes it easiest to buy firearms. It is quite possible that Kennedy was walking around Centerville with a handgun on his hip. Carrying a gun in the Old Dominion is legal, you know.
Selling handguns to minors or drug dealers who use them on the streets of D.C. or Maryland is not legal. But it is a fact that most of the guns in the hands of criminals in the Washington region originate in Virginia.
Michael Kennedy brought his arsenal to the police station and opened fire. But every day, police officers drive through rough neighborhoods and into harm’s way where the bad guys are better armed than they are.
I know what the National Rifle Association will say when asked about Kennedy’s rampage: People should be educated about how to use firearms.
Apparently, Michael Kennedy knew — too well.
Harry Jaffe has been covering the Washington area since 1985. E-mail him at [email protected].
