A man stabbed four people, one fatally, before he was shot and killed by a Virginia trooper on a busy interstate near Washington, DC, authorities said.
The incident Sunday afternoon on the Interstate 495 Beltway was described as road rage and is not believed to be terrorism-related, officials said.
According to Virginia State Police, a trooper was called to the scene in Fairfax County around 1:17 p.m. for a reported road rage incident following a car crash.
"When the trooper arrived on scene, he was confronted by a male suspect carrying a knife," police said in a statement. "The trooper then shot the suspect in self-defense."
The suspect was transported to hospital and later succumbed to those injuries, the statement said.
The victim who died was a 39-year-old woman, according to police. A dog was also stabbed to death.
The condition of the other victims is unknown.
A preliminary investigation indicates the stabbings occurred following a crash on I-495 southbound, police said, adding the crash is under investigation.
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Several lanes of the interstate were closed for hours as authorities investigated, slowing traffic to a standstill.
One witness told CNN he was driving with his wife when traffic slowed significantly and he saw two cars "kind of banged up." He then spotted two people covered in blood and a man with a knife.
A woman appeared to be trying to stop the assailant, but the man kept swinging his knife, the witness said.
"I just kept driving with the traffic," he said. "It was really, it was really scary."
A second witness also described seeing a woman covered in blood trying to defend herself from a man.
Another witness, on his way home from a weekend with family, told CNN he saw a scuffle he now believes was a stabbing. He then saw a state trooper pull up and fire at least two to three shots at the man.
This story has been updated with additional information.
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