Witnesses said the suspect appeared locked onto another vehicle before the roadside assault near Exit 52.
ANNANDALE, Va. — The first public account of Sunday’s deadly stabbing on Interstate 495 came not from police, but from drivers who said they saw a red SUV sideswipe their vehicle, chase another car through traffic and then stop on the shoulder where a man began stabbing women.
That witness framing matters because many of the central facts remain under investigation. Virginia State Police have said a crash on the southbound Beltway in Fairfax County appears to have preceded the attack, but they have released only limited detail about how the collision happened or what triggered the violence. What is known is stark: Michele Adams, 39, was killed, three other women suffered serious injuries, a dog also died, and the suspect, Jared Llamado, was later shot by a responding state trooper and died at a hospital.
Sarah Kober and her daughter, Jennifer Paxton, told NBC Washington they were headed home to North Carolina on March 1 when Llamado’s SUV sideswiped them. Paxton said she suggested pulling over, but her mother decided against it because the other driver “kept going.” The pair said they then watched him weave through traffic behind another car carrying four women. When both vehicles eventually stopped near Exit 52, Kober and Paxton said they pulled over behind them. What they say happened next turned the scene from a highway fender-bender into a killing. They told the station they saw Llamado get out and start stabbing the women in the other vehicle, then fled in fear that they would be next.
Emergency reports began stacking up almost at once. State police said a trooper was dispatched at about 1:17 p.m. for a reported road rage incident on the Capital Beltway. Local reporting placed the violence between Gallows Road and Little River Turnpike, close to Inova Fairfax Medical Campus. Dispatch audio reported by local stations described a crash that had become a stabbing call. Another witness later told television reporters he saw two people on the roadside about 10 to 15 feet apart, both covered in blood, with one person crawling and the other not moving. By then, passing drivers were calling 911, helicopters were landing and the southbound lanes were being shut down as first responders tried to reach the wounded.
Police later identified the dead woman as Adams, 39, of Fairfax. The surviving victims were Dana Bonnell, 36, Mary C. Flood, 37, and Heather Miller, 40. All three were hospitalized with serious injuries. Authorities said a dog that died at the scene belonged to Llamado. In one of the more important findings released after the initial response, state police said the women who were stabbed were not in Llamado’s vehicle and that the preliminary investigation showed he did not know them before the incident. That detail has shaped the case as one of sudden roadside violence rather than a dispute among people with a prior connection.
Llamado, 32, lived in McLean, and the State Department later confirmed he worked as a Foreign Service officer. The department said it was aware of the incident and offered condolences to those affected. Police have also said the attack is not believed to be terrorism-related, an early question in a region where unusual violence on major roadways can quickly raise broader security concerns. Instead, the case has been described by investigators as a road rage incident that escalated after a crash. Even so, the motive is still unsettled in public records. Officials have not explained what, if anything, happened between the collision and the stabbing, or whether there were words, gestures or attempted contact before the attack began.
The trooper’s actions now form a second major part of the story. State police said the trooper arrived, was confronted by Llamado while he still had a knife and fired in self-defense. Llamado was taken to a hospital and later died. The trooper was not injured and has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation, a standard step in officer-involved shooting cases. That review, along with the crash reconstruction and witness interviews, is expected to produce the clearest account of the minutes before the stabbing and the seconds before the trooper fired.
Author note: Last updated March 31, 2026.