An internal investigation is underway after a police officer shot and killed a Reston woman during a welfare check on Monday (Sept. 16).
In an update on the incident released yesterday (Wednesday), the Fairfax County Police Department identified the officer as a 14-year veteran assigned to the Reston Patrol District with crisis intervention training (CIT).
The officer has been placed on restricted duty status, and an independent review is always underway by the police auditor. The FCPD says it will release the name of the officer within 10 days, along with body-worn camera footage of the incident in accordance with its policies.
According to the FCPD, the crisis intervention-trained (CIT) officer knocked on 33-year-old Sydney Wilson’s door in the VY Reston Heights apartments after police got a welfare check request from a mental health professional, who noted that woman was in an “agitated state.”
When the officer knocked on Wilson’s door, she opened it and immediately closed it. She reopened the door after two minutes. This time, she had a knife and “immediately” assaulted the officer outside the residence, the FCPD says.
“The officer was able to back away and attempted to de-escalate the situation with verbal commands. Wilson continued to approach with the knife and the officer discharged his weapon, striking Wilson a total of three times,” FCPD wrote in the statement.
Wilson was taken to an area hospital where she was pronounced dead. The officer sustained non-life-threatening injuries from the alleged knife attack.
While the FCPD confirmed the officer had CIT training, which prioritizes de-escalating situations, it’s unclear whether a co-responder team with a mental health specialist was involved at all with the call. The department now has four co-responder teams that have handled over 2,000 calls since the program began in 2021.
