In the early morning hours of May 7, 2021, a grim discovery was made in a parking lot in Chantilly, Virginia. There, in the 4300 block of Chantilly Shopping Center Drive, lay 26-year-old Brian Constanza-Campos of Herndon, who had been fatally shot. Fairfax County Police officers were dispatched to the scene around 4:41 a.m., where rescue personnel pronounced him deceased from multiple gunshot wounds to his upper body.
The Hispanic man's death was quickly ruled a homicide, prompting an intensive investigation by the Major Crimes Bureau. Detectives began to piece together the events of that morning, collecting several cartridge cases and other evidence from the scene.
The investigation uncovered a related shooting that had occurred earlier the same day, around 1 a.m., at the same location, though no one was injured in that incident. The first break in the case came the following day, on May 8, when Loudoun County Sheriff's deputies arrested 29-year-old Wilson Navarro Escobar of Sterling on unrelated charges. During the arrest, they found him in possession of a firearm, a crucial piece of evidence that Fairfax County detectives were notified about. A second suspect, 43-year-old Rigoberto Rodriguez Hernandez, also from Sterling, was arrested on May 13. His arrest was in connection with the earlier, non-fatal shooting that occurred on the same night as Constanza-Campos's murder. Hernandez was charged with malicious wounding, discharging a firearm in a public place, and brandishing a firearm.
Through further interviews and investigative work, detectives were able to link both Navarro Escobar and Rodriguez Hernandez to the fatal shooting of Brian Constanza-Campos. On July 1, 2021, Fairfax County Police announced that both men had been charged with second-degree murder and the use of a firearm in the commission of a felony. Rodriguez Hernandez was served with his new warrants at the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center, where he was already being held without bond. Navarro Escobar was served at the Loudoun County Adult Detention Center, where he had been in custody since his arrest. The arrests marked a significant development in the case as the investigation continued.
