Body-cam footage shows Fairfax officer shooting woman with knife in hallway
The officer fired five shots at the woman who appeared to slash his face, the footage shows.
Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis addresses reporters in March 2023. (Matthew Barakat/AP)
By
Emily Davies
October 14, 2024 at 7:07 p.m. EDT
A Fairfax County police officer fired five shots at a woman who appeared to slash his face with a knife in a Reston apartment building last month, fatally wounding her, according to newly released body-camera footage showing a roughly four-minute interaction that began when the officer was called to conduct a welfare check.
Fairfax Police Chief Kevin Davis at a news conference Monday stood by the actions of his officer, who the department identified as Peter Liu, a 14-year veteran.
“He did the things that we train him and expect him to do,” Davis said at the news conference in which authorities released the
graphic footage.
The woman who was shot, Sydney Wilson, 33, was pronounced dead at a hospital. Efforts to reach her relatives were unsuccessful.
Fairfax County runs a program in which mental health counselors join police officers on calls involving people with mental illness to help avoid violence. Davis said no counselor joined the officer during the welfare check on Wilson because Liu had received training in crisis intervention.
“I do believe this call for service was appropriately dispatched,” Davis said.
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The Sept. 16 shooting was the county’s first officer-involved shooting since May 2023, according to Davis. In that incident in the Alexandria section of the county,
a man tried to grab an officer’s gun and then tussled with him in a moving police vehicle, according to authorities and body-cam footage.
The incident in Reston began about 10 a.m. in the 11800 block of Sunrise Valley Drive, Davis said, after a mental health counselor notified Prince William County police that Wilson was in an “agitated state.” Prince William County relayed the information to Fairfax, Davis said.
Body-camera footage released Monday shows Liu arriving at the door of the apartment at the end of a long, barren hallway. He knocks, waits, and then Wilson opens the door.
Liu says, “Hi ma’am, I’m Officer Liu.” Wilson, dressed in a white robe, looks at him, whispers “hi” twice, and then closes the door.
Liu knocks three more times before saying, “Miss Wilson, can you talk to me real quick?”
He knocks again, waits, and says, “Sydney? Can you please talk to me? I just want to check on you, make sure you’re okay, that’s all,” the footage shows.
The door stays shut. The footage shows him knocking again, telling her “you’re not in trouble,” and asking multiple times for her to open the door.
About three minutes after their first interaction, Wilson opens the door again. This time, the footage shows, she says, “how are you” and then raises a knife in her right hand. She lunges toward Liu’s face.
Liu can be heard saying “oh, Jesus Christ.” He starts to back up.
The footage shows Wilson following him down the hallway, the knife still raised in her hand.
Liu tells her at least seven times to “back up” or “please back up,” the footage shows.
Wilson continues forward with the knife raised.
Liu then points his gun at her, the footage shows. Wilson appears to take a few steps back, and then again moves forward, toward the officer — until she is close enough to lunge.
Liu then fires his first shot, about 14 seconds after Wilson first opened the door with the knife.
She appears to continue walking toward him with the knife raised, the footage shows. Liu shoots again, and then three more times.
Wilson falls to the ground.
“Ma’am, are you okay,” Liu asks, the footage shows. Blood is dripping from his forehead.
She appears to groan.
“There are inevitably, undoubtedly going to be some constructive training takeaways that we have from this scenario,” Davis said. “But I think given what we knew, when we knew it and how we knew it, I don’t see anything glaring that sticks out to me in terms of a big [Fairfax County Police Department] miss.”
Davis said Liu has been placed on “restricted duty” and is serving elsewhere in the department, with administrative and criminal investigations underway.
