Police believe the armed, masked man who was killed early July 22 outside a woman’s home in Woodbridge, Virginia, was responsible for five armed robberies.

A 44-year-old woman fatally shot 20-year-old Azhar Laurent Smart when she was leaving her home in the 4100 block of Hoffman Drive and saw him approaching her. Prince William County police said the shooting was in self-defense and justified.

Smart, police say, had a loaded gun at the time he was killed. Detectives have since connected that gun to a shell casing found after a July 16 robbery at a 7-Eleven, where a gunman fired a shot before robbing the store. No one was hurt in that robbery.

Detectives believe the robbery was connected with four others at area 7-Elevens on July 5 (when a shot was also fired), July 3, June 29 and June 28.

Smart, of Triangle, Virginia, was wearing clothing “that was also observed in the reported robberies” when he was killed, police said.