Police in Fairfax County, Virginia, released body-cam footage on Friday of a police-involved shooting in April that resulted in the death of a 36-year-old man.
The Fairfax County Police Department called the shooting an “attempted murder.” Footage showed a traffic stop in Fair Oaks from April 23 that quickly deteriorated into a firefight that involved Virginia resident Jamal Wali and three police officers.
The encounter began when a police officer pulled Wali over for speeding and having an expired inspection sticker. After the officer signaled for Wali to pull over, Wali slammed on the brakes. The officer, who was close behind, exclaimed “Jesus Christ!” as he braked to avoid hitting Wali’s car.
Wali noted he had a gun before asking why he was pulled over. From there, the situation became chaotic quickly as Wali, who said he worked as an interpreter for the U.S. military in Afghanistan, began to argue over how he has been treated since coming to the United States. Wali refused to give his name and said he had no driver’s licence or vehicle registration.
“You f***ing people brought me to this goddamn country, and I’m dying every f***ing single day,” Wali told the officer. At one point, he said he “should have served with f***ing Taliban” while the officer attempted to deescalate the situation.
The officer called for backup, noting that Wali was argumentative and appeared to reach for a weapon at several points. Two more officers arrived on the scene within minutes. After the third officer walked up, Wali grabbed his gun and fired at two police officers on the driver’s side of his vehicle, hitting both. A third officer who was on the passenger’s side of Wali’s car fired back at Wali.
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Additional emergency personnel arrived at the scene. Wali was taken to a nearby hospital and pronounced dead. Two officers were treated for non-life-threatening injuries.
Police in Fairfax, Va. have released the footage showing an armed Afghan migrant trying to kill police on April 23.
Jamal Wali, who was given refuge in the U.S. and has four children, made racist anti-white statements against the police, showed his firearm, and said he wished he… pic.twitter.com/bWU35FBP7L
— Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) May 24, 2025
Fairfax County police chief Kevin Davis in a press conference on Friday confirmed that Wali, as he repeatedly said throughout the traffic stop, was married and had four children.
“The impact on those children is unimaginable, and they’ll carry that with them the rest of their lives,” Davis said.
“We are very fortunate that we didn’t have two police funerals,” Davis said, adding that “it was thanks to some strategic thinking, actions by our police officer who you see on the passenger side of the car, his actions his deployment of that deadly force saved the lives of the two officers on the driver’s side of the car. There’s no doubt about that.”