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Police seek ‘violent’ man who fled Falls Church mental health facility

WASHINGTON — Police in Fairfax County are working with Virginia State Police to find a man who they say fled a mental health facility on Monday.

Thirty-three-year-old Michael Marshall escaped the Northern Virginia Mental Health Institute, located at 3302 Gallows Road, and was noticed missing around 6 p.m., police say. He has been known to exhibit violent behavior, according to police.

Marshall is described as standing 5-feet-8-inches tall, weighing 235 pounds, with black hair and glasses. No clothing description was available.

Police say Marshall could be on foot in the Annandale or Falls Church area near the facility, but has ties to the area near Sequoia Farms Drive and Woodfield Drive in Centreville, and the Sterling area.

If you have information about Marshall’s whereabouts, you are advised to not approach him and to call police at 703-691-2131.

School bus emergency? Fairfax County students have a plan to handle it

This story is part of WTOP’s 2026 Back to School coverage. The wheels on the bus will soon be going round and round again in Fairfax County, Virginia, and some of its young riders are learning what to do if there’s an emergency on the way to school. The annual Safety Patrol Training Camp, hosted by Fairfax County Public Schools' Office of Transportation Services, combined hands-on exercises with classroom lessons to teach students how to keep calm during emergencies on buses. The training can feel remarkably realistic, with overturned school buses on their side or completely upside down in the middle of the county bus depot. Other buses, right side up, fill with smoke that is water-based but mimics the intensity of a bus overheating.
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