Vienna Connection

   The following images chronicle officer body cam video leading up to, during and after the knife attack on the officer and the shooting. In the top right-hand corner of each frame is the time stamp by year-month-date, followed by hour:minute:second, e.g. 2024-09-16 10:17:08.
  

For 459 days, the Fairfax County Police Department maintained a record free from incidents involving the shooting and killing of an individual by one of their officers. On Monday, Oct. 14, the department released the body-worn camera (BWC) video footage from a police wellness check in Reston conducted on mid-morning Sept. 16, which escalated into a fatal police shooting of a woman within three minutes. It occurred at a new upscale apartment complex in the 11800 block of Sunrise Valley Drive in Reston. 

According to the department's General Order No. 509, effective June 17, 2024, officers must activate their BWC systems during their duties, provided that capturing video documentation complies with department policy and the Code of Virginia. In their release on Sept. 18, two days after the shooting, the department identified FCPD officer First Class (PFC) Peter Liu as the officer who discharged his firearm in the fatal shooting in Reston.

The timestamps in the upper right-hand corner of each body-worn camera footage frame chronicle the sequence of events. It begins with the arrival of Liu, who approaches and knocks on the door of 33-year-old Sydney Elizabeth Wilson's apartment at 10:14:00 a.m., continuing for three-and-a-half minutes. At 10:17:30, Liu has shot Wilson, who lies still in her white bathrobe and barefoot on the hallway floor outside her third-floor apartment. Liu grabs his police radio to call for assistance. Knife wounds slash his face, blood dripping onto his hand holding his radio and onto the floor.

The beginning of the footage shows Wilson opening the door at 10:14:16, closing it, and opening it again at 10:17:05 while holding a knife in her right hand. Liu retreats backward into a dead-end hallway and against an apartment door as Wilson advances toward him, slashing with her knife. Liu tells Wilson to “back away” multiple times. Liu fires his gun five times. The police narrator on the video reports that Wilson sustains three gunshot strikes.

The 25-minute press conference, which included a transcript, featured five minutes of Officer Involved Shooting (OIS) body-worn camera footage from multiple officers, followed by remarks from Chief Davis and a Q&A session with the media.

The department showed the body-worn camera (BWC) footage during the first five minutes of the 25-minute press conference. “A crisis intervention-trained officer was the first on the scene at approximately 10:07 a.m.,” says the narrator. Officer Liu knocks on the door, and Wilson answers. (0.57-1:07) After Liu identifies himself, Wilson closes the door and places her phone next to it, playing music that is audible on video. According to the narrator, Liu continues to knock for 2 minutes and 45 seconds, explaining that he wants to check Wilson's welfare. Wilson returns and opens the door (2:16). Liu asks, “How are you?” (2:17), and Wilson brandishes a knife, slashing it (2:17) at Liu.

“Oh, Jesus Christ. Oh, Jesus Christ,” (2:18) Liu says, retreating backward down the hallway and calling out, “Back up. Back up,” several times. According to the video’s narrator, Liu is trying to de-escalate the situation by giving verbal commands and retreating. Liu has backed into a dead-end hallway against a closed apartment door. Wilson moves toward Liu (2:42). Liu attempts to reposition himself away as Wilson attacks, striking him with the knife. Liu discharges his firearm (2:42–2:51). The video captures the sound of five pops. The narrator says, "[The officer] discharged his firearm, striking Wilson three times.” 

Liu calls in on his radio. “531 Bravo. Signal. Shots fired.” (3:12-3:22) Blood begins to drip down on Liu’s hand. (3:22-.3:40) Bleeding increases. “Start medic, please. The suspect's, the suspect’s down. I need medical, too,” Liu says. (3:41-3:52) The video shows the blood increasing, dripping to the floor. Liu drops his radio. ”Units en route,” says the dispatcher. (3:53)

Additional officers arrive ahead of Fairfax County Fire and Rescue. One of them is a plain-clothes detective, identified later by Davis as a sergeant. The detective asks if anyone has gloves. No one does. Despite not having gloves, the detective begins CPR on Wilson, who can be seen blurred on the video. Liu sits on the hallway floor, feet away from Wilson, receiving aid. The video shows the detective continuing CPR on Wilson. Fairfax County Fire and Rescue transported Wilson to a nearby hospital, where they pronounced her deceased. Liu is transported to an area hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Chief Kevin Davis said that during the press conference, Liu attempted to retreat from the situation and alter its outcome. “But he was just in a no-win position, and his life was being threatened.” Liu arrived at Wilson's residence after a mental health professional reported that Wilson was in an "agitated state," and asked police to conduct a welfare check on her. Davis said a mental health counselor did not join Liu on the welfare check. The mental health team was on another call for service. He added that Liu had received crisis intervention training. 

Davis made remarks from 5:06 to 15:56 and answered questions from 15:57 to 25:34. Davis said, “You saw the body-worn camera footage …. The second time she came to the door, she immediately attacked and slashed our police officer. It could have been much, much worse.” Davis explained that the officer did what the department trained and expected him to do when threatened. "If you can tactically reposition yourself, you do it. If you can use distance, use it. If you can seek cover and concealment, seek it. All those options weren’t available to him,” Davis said.

“I believe personally and based on my training and everything I've seen and my knowledge of how our co-responder teams operate and the proximity of our clinicians with our officers when they're dealing with people who are in a crisis, a co-responder would have found herself or himself in a very dangerous position when this woman came to the door the second time,” Davis said. 

Davis said that he believed the call for service was appropriately dispatched to a police officer with the training and experience to handle it effectively. “I believe he was doing his very best to communicate with this woman before she came to the door a second time with a knife,” Davis said. According to Davis, the county employs a co-responder program, with clinicians accompanying officers to mental health crisis calls and responding to over 2,200 calls in 2024.

Davis expressed condolences to the family of Sydney Wilson. “Any loss of life is something that we all mourn, and 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; we acknowledge that.”

Davis discussed the department's CIT training. According to Virginia's standard, a police department should have 29 percent of its officers trained in CIT. “In Fairfax County, we have 59 percent of our sworn police officers who are CIT trained … Between September 2023 and September 2024, we responded to 3,252 checks on the welfare type calls for service, so it is a routinely dispatched call for service in Fairfax County.”
“I am very grateful that our police officer is recovering, alive, and available to still do this very difficult job and under very difficult circumstances. I believe he did an excellent job,” Davis said.

Assigned to the Reston Police District, PFC Liu is currently on restricted-duty status, awaiting the outcome of the criminal and administrative investigations. The press conference is available for viewing at https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=r1SiDfkL0qI.

Who was Sydney Elizabeth  Wilson?

    Sydney Elizabeth Wilson, obituary photo
  

Sydney Elizabeth Wilson’s obituary says she was the only child of Lori A. Myers (Wilson) and Jerome Wilson Jr., and a 2013 graduate of Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., earning a B.A. in Government with a minor in Theology.

Wilson was a NAACP Georgetown University Chapter member, a special guest speaker for the Hoops to Heels Student Athlete Program at Virginia Commonwealth University in 2015, and a Young Women’s Leadership Panel Speaker for All-City Leadership Secondary School in 2018.

In 2021, Wilson began her career at JLL Mid-Atlantic as a temp. She later secured a full-time position in the Tysons Corner office. In 2022, she received a promotion to Markets Operations Manager for JLL Mid-Atlantic in Washington, D.C. She managed 18-25 coordinators, with some in Norfolk and Richmond, and traveled between offices in Tysons Corner, VA, D.C., Bethesda, MD, and Baltimore, MD. Her obituary asks for memorial donations to the National Alliance on Mental Health in Sydney's honor.

Wilson's Facebook page states that she completed 8 hours of necessary training to become certified in adult mental health first aid on April 19, 2024. Wilson writes on her FaceBook page, “As a people manager, mentor, friend, big cousin, daughter ... the list goes on, it’s important to be able to help and identify challenges in myself and others. I think this is the greatest act of love.”