A woman was shot in the Fairfax area in September after attacking officer with a kitchen knife in a nearby apartment building.
Officer Peter Liu of the Fairfax County Police Department responded to a medical welfare check, on Sept. 16, to a residence on 11800 block of Sunrise Valley Drive. The officer knocked on the suspect’s door. Sydney Wilson, 33, answered the door then immediately closed it.
Sydney then opened the door and then immediately assaulted Officer Liu with a kitchen knife.
“If they had brought more people it could have been prevented,” said Liangfei Hu, an eighth-grader on the Wolves team, “if he called for more backup.”
The officer then backed up in the hallway, telling Sydney stop and drop the knife. Sydney ignored the commands and kept walking towards the officer. Officer Liu then fired into Sydney three times.
“I think it was justified as there was an obvious attempt to kill him,” said Krish Gupta, an eighth-grader on the Discovery team.
Sydney then fell to the ground after Officer Liu fired the shots three times into Sydney’s torso. After he fired the shots, two other officers arrived at the scene.
One of the officers at the scene attended to Officer Liu while the other officer tried to resuscitate Wilson, but she was pronounced dead at the hospital, reports say.
Officer Liu was confirmed to be on administrative leave by Chief Davis of the FCPD after the incident following an internal investigation of the shooting.
Liangfei said that “it sucks” and “shows how society has degraded.”
Kian Quinn, a seventh-grader on the Legacy team agrees.
Kian said, ‘’It seemed like the right thing to do considering the circumstances.’’
So far in 2024 there has only been one police involved shooting in Fairfax with there being 18 shootings in the past 10 years. That is an average of 1.8 shootings a year. The last shooting that occurred in Reston was in 2017.
“He tried to hold on as long as he could to keep her safe,” Krish said.
