Aftermath of an ‘ambush’

The 18-year-old gunman who killed a Fairfax County police detective and wounded two officers had spent time in a mental health facility and was armed with an AK-47-style weapon, a high-powered rifle and five handguns when he ambushed the officers Monday.

“This was an unprovoked attack, an ambush,” Fairfax County Police Chief David Rohrer said.

Michael William Kennedy, 18, of Centreville, was wearing a black mask and dressed in camouflage clothing when he fired more than 70 rounds at officers in the parking lot of the Sully District Station in Chantilly at about 3:50 p.m. He had extensive ammunition for the weapons, including “banana” magazine clips and bags of bullets, police said.

The teenager had tried to carjack a Ford pickup truck in the 14800 block of Bodley Square of Centreville about 20 minutes before the shooting, but the truck’s owner ran off with the keys in his pocket.

Kennedy then carjacked a Chevrolet minivan in the 6200 block of Paddington Lane at about 3:45 p.m., police said. He drove to the police station parking lot, got out and began firing at officers.

Detective Vicky O. Armel, 40, a nine-year member of the county police, was one of the officers hit. She died at Inova Fairfax Hospital.

The detective, who was married to a Fairfax detective and had two young children, is the first officer in the police department’s 66-year-old history to be fatally shot in the line of duty.

She was responding to a radio broadcast of Kennedy’s carjacking attempt when he confronted her in the parking lot, police said.

“On the day she died, she was doing her job right to the last moment. It’s the kind of person she was,” Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Robert F. Horan Jr. said.

Four officers, including Detective Armel, fired back at Kennedy. Authorities were awaiting the results of an autopsy to determine whether police killed the teen or whether he killed himself.

“We’re not going to know until they do the ballistics on the bullets,” police spokeswoman Mary Ann Jennings said. “We have no reason to believe he died of suicide.”

A 53-year-old officer wounded in the gunfight remained in critical condition at the hospital yesterday.

The officer — a 23-year member of the force — was parking his cruiser when the gunfight began. He was hit more than five times.

A second officer, 28 and a five-year veteran, was treated for minor injuries.

Officer Edward Orellana said investigators “have no indication” that Kennedy targeted Detective Armel.

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