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Fairfax County’s independent police auditor is urging county leaders to reconsider when officers should respond to mental health crises, even as he concluded that an officer reasonably used deadly force during a fatal 2024 encounter in Reston.
Richard Schott made the recommendation in a Jan. 29 report examining the Fairfax County Police Department’s investigation into the death of Sydney Wilson. Wilson was fatally shot Sept. 16, 2024, after attacking an officer with a kitchen knife at the VY Reston Heights apartments, now called The Point at Rise.
Schott agreed with the police department and Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano that the shooting was justified. However, he said the case raises a broader question about whether law enforcement should handle welfare checks involving people in behavioral health crises when no criminal activity is suspected.
Fairfax County already has numerous programs and resources for mental and behavioral health emergencies. Schott said civilian responders could supplement or sometimes replace officers, potentially producing better outcomes.
He pointed to a growing number of non-police response programs with positive results and said local governments should continue exploring ways to expand civilian crisis response while reducing police involvement.
Welfare check turned deadly
Police Officer First Class Peter Liu arrived at Wilson’s apartment around 10 a.m. after a mental health professional requested a welfare check. Police said at the time that Wilson had displayed “grandiose delusions.”
Liu knocked, identified himself as an officer and told Wilson she was not in trouble. Prosecutors said he explained that officers only wanted to make sure she was all right.
When Wilson opened the door, she was holding a kitchen knife. Body-camera footage showed her swinging it at Liu and striking him in the forehead. She then chased him down the hallway.
Wilson ignored commands to stop and struck Liu again with the knife. Liu fired five shots, hitting her three times. She collapsed in the hallway and was taken to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Descano declined to charge Liu. Schott, a 27-year FBI veteran who has served as Fairfax County’s police auditor since the position was established in 2017, found that Liu attempted to calm the situation and resorted to lethal force only when other options were no longer viable.
Schott wrote that nonlethal tactics were not practical after Wilson attacked Liu and that the officer had done nothing beforehand to intentionally increase the likelihood of a deadly confrontation.
County asked to weigh civilian response
Schott said Liu’s crisis-intervention training was beneficial during the encounter. Still, he noted a long-running debate over the proper role of police in behavioral health emergencies.
Those seeking less police involvement argue that officers should be able to concentrate on crime and violence. Others worry that sending unarmed civilian workers could expose them to injury. Schott said jurisdictions must determine when officers are necessary and when their presence might be harmful or legally problematic, particularly because people in crisis are sometimes injured or killed during encounters with police.
Fairfax County launched a co-responder program in 2021 that pairs officers with behavioral health specialists from the Fairfax-Falls Church Community Services Board for certain 911 calls.
After reviewing a separate fatal police shooting in McLean in 2022, Schott recommended accelerating the program’s expansion. A fourth officer-and-clinician team was added in October 2023.
Current call volumes do not appear to justify putting more teams on duty around the clock, Schott said. He nevertheless encouraged county leaders to decide whether they are satisfied with the present balance between police and civilian participation in noncriminal welfare checks.
Cities including New Orleans and Denver have adopted programs that dispatch only civilian crisis workers to some mental health calls. Eugene, Oregon, ended its relationship with the landmark CAHOOTS program last year, although the initiative, established in 1989, continues operating in neighboring Springfield.
Schott said improving the county’s handling of crisis calls remains critically important to the Board of Supervisors, people experiencing crises, the police department and the wider community.
Fairfax County officers have been involved in one or two shootings annually since 2016, except in 2022, when the total reached six. The number fell to two in 2023, one in 2024 and two in 2025.