Justin Fairfax, a former lieutenant governor of Virginia whose tenure was upended by allegations of sexual assault, shot and killed his wife Cerina Fairfax on Thursday before killing himself, police said.

Kevin Davis, the chief of the Fairfax county police department in Virginia, said at a press conference that the killings took place in the context of “an ongoing domestic dispute surrounding what seems to be a complicated or messy divorce”.

The shooting took place at the Fairfaxes residence in Annandale, Virginia, and police arrived on the scene after receiving a 911 call from one of their teenage children shortly after midnight.

“Former lieutenant governor Justin Fairfax shot and killed his wife inside of their home and then shot and killed himself,” Davis said.

A Democratic lieutenant governor who served from 2018 to 2022 under Governor Ralph Northam, Justin Fairfax, 47, was the second African American to hold statewide office in Virginia since Reconstruction and considered a rising star in the state’s politics.

His career was upended in 2019 when two women accused him of sexual assault and he faced a barrage of calls to resign amid a wider misconduct scandal that engulfed Northam’s administration. Fairfax denied both allegations.

In 2021, Fairfax sought the Democratic gubernatorial nomination but finished in fourth place, with 3.54% of the vote.

Davis said Cerina and Justin Fairfax were living together as they went through their divorce, and that the former lieutenant governor “was recently served some paperwork associated with an upcoming court proceeding that apparently led to this incident last night”.

Their two teenage children were in the house at the time of the killings, he added.

After departing office in 2022, Fairfax had a troubled life, according to court documents obtained by the Washington Post. On a daily basis he consumed heavy amounts of alcohol and grew isolated from family.

In 2022, Fairfax purchased a gun, the newspaper reported, and on one occasion, left their house with the firearm and a packed suitcase. Cerina Fairfax, her stepfather and another relative later found Fairfax in a park. He said the gun was for his personal security.

In court documents from the divorce proceedings, Fairfax county circuit court Judge Timothy J McEvoy called the former politician a “talented man who struggles with undefined emotional and psychological issues”.

“Yet there can be no mistake that these undefined issues are in fact defining him and limiting his ability to be the person he is capable of being, including but not limited to the role of a dad,” McEvoy continued.

Weeks before the couple were found dead, the judge set a 30 April deadline for Fairfax to move out of the family home, and Cerina Fairfax was granted primary physical custody of their two children, according to the Post.

Police had been called to the residence once prior, in January of this year, when Justin Fairfax accused his wife of assault, Davis said. Officers determined no incident had occurred after reviewing footage from cameras Cerina Fairfax had set up inside the house.

“The allegation that Mr Fairfax made in January, that Mrs Fairfax assaulted him, was proven to be untrue,” Davis said.

Journalist Sophia Nelson, who described Justin Fairfax as a friend, said she was devastated for the couple’s children in a Thursday video on X. Nelson shared she had last spoken to Justin on Tuesday.

“Cerina did not deserve what Justin did to her,” Nelson said. “He was depressed. He was in darkness. He was dealing with everything he had lost, feeling that there was no hope.”

She and other friends encouraged him to seek help, she said.

“One of the last things Justin said to me was I need somebody to help me, to prove my innocence. I can’t get my life back until somebody stands up for me,” Nelson said.

• In the US, the suicide prevention lifeline is 988 and the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). In the UK, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123 and the domestic abuse helpline is 0808 2000 247. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14 and the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. Other international helplines can be found via www.befrienders.org