Woman charging with a knife

About

Woman charging with a knife refers to a still image taken from a Fairfax County police officer’s body camera showing a large woman charging at him with a knife in her hand. The attacker, Sydney Wilson, 33, was fatally shot by the officer during the confrontation, while the officer suffered a head injury. In mid-October 2024, after the body camera footage was released, the image, along with several other images from the incident, went viral online as they were edited and used in caption memes.

Origin

On September 16, 2014, a Farifax County police officer shot and killed a woman who attacked him at an apartment complex during a welfare check. The attacker was identified as 33-year-old Sydney Wilson.

On October 14, body camera footage of the incident was released. The video shows a large woman approaching the officer with the knife as he orders her to back off. After the woman charged and punched the officer, injuring him in the face, he responded by opening fire with his handgun, fatally wounding her. The officer reports the incident and calls for reinforcements and medical assistance as his blood flows freely on camera. The video was viewed more than 213,000 times on YouTube in one day.

On October 14, 2024, the X account @Police_Activity posted a still image from the video showing the woman grimacing and charging at the police officer with a knife in her hand as he points a handgun at her. The post (shown below) garnered over 20 reposts and 220 likes in one day.

Spread

On October 14, the video and still image went viral online as several accounts posted about the incident. For example, on October 14, influencer Andy Ngo posted the video and image, with the posts garnering over 15,000 reposts and 136,000 likes and 1,200 reposts and 17,000 likes respectively on X in one day. Later that day, X account @EndWokeness posted the image alongside a photo of the injured police officer, with the post receiving over 20,000 reposts and 218,000 likes in one day.

Starting the same day, users on X and 4chan posted caption memes and edits based on the image. For example, on October 14, 2024, user shown below).

Several memes in which the woman was edited to look like Concord character Buzz, a knife-wielding fighter, were shared on 4chan and later on X. On October 14, an anonymous 4chan user posted one of these edits in a /pol/ thread (shown below) .

Additionally, memes based on other stills from the video, as well as video montages, were circulated online. For example, on October 14, 2024, user X @TheOnlyDSC shared a Loss edit of the attack created by an unknown user that garnered over 2 million views, 5,700 reposts, and 44,000 likes. The incident was also referenced in various memes, including Soyjak’s edits.

Various examples

Research interest

External references