Bodycam Footage Shows Virginia Officer Shooting Woman Who Attacked Him

In this image from bodycam video, Sydney Wilson speaks to a police officer in Fairfax County, Va., on Sept. 16, 2024. Fairfax County Police Department via The Epoch Times

Newly released body camera footage shows a police officer in Virginia fatally shooting a woman who attacked him after he knocked on her door to conduct a wellness check.

Officer Peter Liu went to the apartment of Sydney Wilson in Reston on Sept. 16 because a mental health professional asked for a welfare check “out of concern that she was in an agitated state,” Fairfax County Police Department Chief Kevin Davis told a press conference on Oct. 14 as his department released the footage.

The video from Liu’s body camera shows the officer around 10 a.m. knocking on Wilson’s door. She opens it and he greets her, identifying himself as an officer. She says “Hi” but then shuts the door.

Liu keeps asking Wilson to open the door and speak to him, saying he wants to make sure she’s OK. After three minutes, Wilson opens the door. She’s brandishing a knife. After saying, “How are you,” she attacks Liu.

The officer moves down the hallway while telling Wilson to back up. When she gets close to him, Liu shoots her. When Wilson continues to advance, he fires four more shots.

“The officer tried to de-escalate the situation by giving verbal commands and retreating,” Davis told reporters.

Liu has been trained on intervening in crises and was not accompanied by a mental health counselor as officers sometimes are under a program in Fairfax Counties aimed at reducing violence.

A review of the footage showed Liu seemed to have followed his training.

“He did the things that we train him and expect him to do,” Davis said. He added later: “I believe he did an excellent job attempting to defuse the situation, attempting to retreat from it and alter its outcome, but he was just in a no-win position, and his life was being threatened.”

Wilson, 33, died from the gunshot wounds. Liu was slashed across the face, bled a lot, and was treated at a hospital for wounds that were not life-threatening, according to the police department.

Wilson’s family has not appeared to issue any public comment on the shooting directly. Relatives said in an obituary that her “legacy of friendship, empathy and love will live on in the hearts of everyone who ever met her.”

Liu has been placed on restricted duty elsewhere in the police department as the investigation into the shooting continues, the police chief said. The department is also examining what happened, he said, with an eye on determining if any training or policy can be changed to keep police officers and members of the public safer.

“Any loss of life is something that we all mourn,” Davis said. “The person whose life was lost in this particular case is no different; she has a family and friends and loved ones who love her very much, who care about her and undoubtedly are grieving and upset and we acknowledge that and we pray and our thoughts are with this particular family.”