OAN Staff Abril Elfi
11:00 AM – Wednesday, October 16, 2024
The Georgetown women’s basketball team has received criticism after they posted on X mourning former player Sydney Wilson’s death just days after a video emerged showing her stabbing a police officer.
On September 20th, the team posted a picture of Wilson on X, and said “Georgetown women’s basketball mourns the tragic loss of Sydney Wilson (C’13). Forever a Hoya.”
The post was flagged by X, adding a notation that said “Sydney Wilson attempted to stab a police officer, who then shot her in self-defense.”
On Monday, the Fairfax County Police Department released body camera footage from the stabbing.
On September 16th, a mental health professional had called to ask the police department to “conduct a welfare check” on Wilson “out of concern she was in an agitated state.” At 10:07 a.m, a crisis intervention-trained officer, Peter Liu, arrived at her apartment in Reston, Virginia.
The footage shows the officer introducing himself and Wilson closing the door on his face.
Lui then knocked on her door for two minutes while she placed her phone next to the door playing music. Then at 10:17 a.m, Wilson opened the door with a knife and slashed the officer.
Lui began backing up and pulled out his gun while yelling, “Back up.” Wilson continued to run towards him and stabbed him several more times before the officer shot her three times in self defense.
The officer was left with a lot of blood, calling to ask for support. Liu could be seen in another video bleeding from his forehead while being attended to by support.
Wilson was pronounced dead at a local hospital, and Lui received non-life-threatening injuries.
“Any loss of life is something we all mourn,” Chief of Police Kevin Davis said during a press conference. “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 and we pray and our thoughts are with this particular family.”
Davis continued by praising Lui for the way he handled the attack.
“The second time she came through the door, she immediately attacked and slashed our police officer,” Davis said. “It could have been much, much worse.”
“I’m very grateful that our police officer is recovering, alive and available to do this very difficult job, and under very difficult circumstances I believe he did an excellent job at attempting to defuse the situation, attempting to retreat from it an alter its outcome but he was just in a no-win situation and his life was being threatened,” he added.
Wilson played for the Hoyas from 2010 until 2013. She served as a captain during her senior season.
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