Security guard shoots man outside Gum Springs Community Center

September 14, 2017 Police and Fire

Police tape is seen near a shelter at the Gum Springs Community Center where a man was shot on Thursday afternoon. (Fairfax Police image)

A man is in the hospital after being shot and wounded during a confrontation with a security guard earlier this afternoon outside the Gum Springs Community Center.

Police say the shooter was a private security guard who worked at the facility, located in the 8100 block of Fordson Road. The guard is said to have flagged down officers arriving on the scene a little before 1:30 p.m. The guard told officers that he approached a man on a field outside the center about securing his two dogs, which were allegedly running loose.

“That situation escalated,” police spokeswoman Emily Voss said, and the guard shot the man once in the abdomen. Police later tweeted that the shooting victim allegedly “had approached the security guard with a knife” before being shot. 

After being shot, the victim drove off but the guard was able to get the man’s license tags, police said. Using the tags, police — including K9 units and the Fairfax1 helicopter — went to a home in the 2800 block of Joseph Makell Court, which is less than a mile away from the community center. A man suffering from a gunshot wound was found in the yard. 

The gunshot victim was conscious when he was taken to a local hospital, according to a police spokesman. 

News helicopter images tweeted by an ABC7 reporter showed the crime scene near Joseph Makell Court.

No charges against either party have been announced yet, and police are continuing to investigate. 

The Gum Springs Community Center is home to the Greater Mount Vernon Community Head Start program; a police spokeswoman could not say if any children were outside at the time of the shooting but did confirm they were on the premises. 

Mount Vernon Supervisor Dan Storck, who wrote on Facebook that he visited the community center in the wake of the shooting, said the facility was placed on lockdown during the incident. 

Security at the community center is contracted through SOS Security. A guard is present at the center Monday-Saturday from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., according to Tony Castrilli, Fairfax County director of public affairs. 

This story has been updated multiple times since it was published.