Police: Man in stolen BMW crashes into Fairfax Co. front yard, starts house fire
No one inside the house was injured.
In a news conference, Fairfax County Lt. James Curry said at 4:40 a.m. Thursday, officers were called to the area of Cumbria Valley Drive and Derwent Valley Court for reports of a man entering into vehicles, reportedly stealing from cars.
Curry said once officers were in the area, they found a man inside a vehicle, approached him on foot and told him to get out of the vehicle.
The man then sped away inside a BMW, Curry said, which was later found to be stolen.
Police say he then crashed into an electrical transformer box that was in the front yard of a house, which then sparked a fire on the property and adjacent house. Police say there were two adults and three children inside the house at the time and that all were evacuated without injury.
The suspect then fled the scene. In addition to officers searching the area, Curry said there also K9 units and a helicopter searching for the suspect.
Curry said FCPD originally took a first man into custody who they found in the area earlier Thursday morning, but police determined he was not the suspect they were looking for.
At 1:10 p.m., Fairfax County Police posted on social media that a suspect was in custody.
According to police, the transformer fire caused power outages in the area, and Dominion trucks were on sight working to restore power to the neighborhood.