Bodycam video shows police fatally shooting New Jersey woman whose family told 911 she was having a mental health crisis
By Nic F. Anderson and Dalia Faheid, CNN
(CNN) — Body camera footage was released Friday showing the fatal police shooting of Victoria Lee, a 25-year-old woman whose brother had called 911 for medical help during her mental health crisis in Fort Lee, New Jersey last month.
At least five Fort Lee police officers responded to the family’s apartment on July 28, according to the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office. After they were unable to get inside, one of the officers broke open the apartment door, footage of the incident released by the attorney general’s office shows.
Within five seconds of forcing her front door open, one officer shot Lee in the chest, killing her, footage shows.
Before her mental health crisis, Lee was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, Henry Cho, an attorney for Lee’s family, said at a press conference Tuesday. Lee was “harmless,” Cho said.
“Despite their efforts to prevent escalation and clearly communicating her nonviolent nature, the police responded aggressively and forcefully entered the apartment and fatally shot Victoria, who was holding a plastic water jar at the time,” Cho said.
An investigation into the incident comes amid growing scrutiny around how police around the country respond to mental health crises. Just three weeks before Lee was shot, Sonya Massey, a 36-year-old Black woman in Illinois who had called 911 for help, was also shot in her home. The day before Massey was killed, her mother called 911 and said her daughter was having a mental breakdown but wasn’t dangerous.
Adrian Lee, president of the Korean-American Association of New Jersey, said at the press conference Tuesday that the shooting “underscores the urgent need to improve police training and response protocols for dealing with individuals facing mental health issues.”
“Mental health crises require understanding and appropriate intervention, not violence,” he said. Advocacy groups are also expressing concern that the shooting of Lee, who is Asian, might leave New Jersey’s Asian community fearful of seeking mental health help.
Lee’s family is looking for answers after the shooting took the young woman’s life.
“Victoria was a beloved individual with a bright future, and her loss is immeasurable. The Lee family is committed to seeking justice and ensuring the full truth of this tragic event is revealed,” Cho said.
The fatal police shooting is still under investigation, the attorney general’s office said Friday.
CNN has reached out to Fort Lee Police for comment. CNN has also attempted to reach Cho and reached out to the Bergen County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Brother tried to cancel 911 call
On the night of the shooting, Lee’s brother made two 911 calls.
“Her brother Chris made two phone calls to 911 requesting an ambulance, emphasizing her mental state and the presence of a small pocket knife she used for opening packages,” Cho said.
The first call was to report that his sister was experiencing a mental health crisis and would like an ambulance to take her to a local hospital. After he was informed that a police officer would be accompanying medics, he asked for police not to come, but was told by the dispatcher that police presence was required for the medics’ safety, according to an audio recording of the 911 call released by the attorney general’s office.
Lee’s brother then called 911 a second time, requesting to cancel the initial call, but was told that was not possible for mental health crisis calls and that police will arrive shortly. The call operator asked Lee’s brother why he wants to cancel the call and he responded that his sister has a knife but that she isn’t threatening anybody, according to the audio.
“She’s just holding the knife,” he said, adding that it was a “foldable” knife.
Video shows lead-up and aftermath
Four different body camera angles, with portions pixelated or blurred, show the moments leading up to the fatal shooting as police responded to the incident at Lee’s home around 1:25 a.m ET.
Bodycam footage shows a Fort Lee police officer arriving at the family’s apartment and Lee’s brother opening the door. The officer asks if he is the person “dealing with the mental health crisis” and the one with the knife, to which Lee’s brother says that the person is his sister.
The door is opened again by a woman, identified by the attorney general’s office as Lee’s mother, who was holding a barking dog. Lee appears in the background and says to “close the f**king door” while reaching over her mother and closing the door.
Shortly after, at least four other officers arrive.
The initial officer yells that he will break the door down and someone, identified by the attorney general’s office as Lee, is heard in the video yelling, “go ahead, I’ll stab you in the f**king neck.”
One officer is seen reaching for his gun but stops to grab Lee’s brother to usher him away. Another officer steps in and escorts Lee’s brother away from the apartment door.
“We don’t want to shoot you, we want to help you,” another officer is heard saying in the footage.
“Go home, pig,” Lee responds.
In police video, Fort Lee officers are heard discussing “who wants to go lethal” and “less lethal.” At least two officers, including the officer who fatally shot Lee, are heard saying they will “go lethal.” At least one officer is heard saying he will go non-lethal.
Another officer says to the group that someone is going to get tools to open the door and adds “normally barricaded, we wait, but there’s someone in there. We need to go.”
Footage then shows the officer who fatally shot Lee begin to attempt breaking down the door by body-slamming into it while screaming “open the door.” Other officers are heard yelling at Lee to drop the weapon and that they will break the door down.
When the door opens, footage shows Lee and her mother standing in the doorway and Lee can be seen holding a large blue water jug and stepping towards the door.
Footage shows an officer using a police shield in Lee’s direction.
“Drop the knife,” one officer yelled.
A knife was recovered at the scene, according to a news release from the attorney general’s office. It’s unclear from the footage if Lee was holding the knife when officers opened the door. Cho said Lee had dropped the knife before officers entered the apartment.
The attorney general’s office said Lee approached the officers when she was fatally shot.
After Lee was shot and on the ground, an officer repeatedly yelled to put the knife down and then continued asking where the knife is, to which someone said “right here.” The four body camera videos do not show if Lee had been holding a knife when she was shot.
The officer who fatally shot Lee drags her into the hallway by her feet as she is asked if she is okay and to show officers where she was shot, footage shows. One officer is heard yelling for towels.
Lee was taken to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead around 1:58 a.m., authorities said.
“The family is deeply concerned about the police’s unnecessary use of lethal force,” Cho said Tuesday.
Advocacy groups criticize officer’s actions
In the wake of the fatal shooting, advocacy groups called the actions of the Fort Lee police officers “sickening” and demanded investment in more culturally competent mental health services.
“Words cannot describe our grief or anger,” AAPI New Jersey said Friday in a joint statement with AAPI New Jersey, the Korean-American Association of New Jersey, the Korean Community Center and MinKwon Center for Community Action.
The group said they worry that the killing will further discourage Asian American families from seeking mental health help for a loved one, which can already be a difficult task for the community.
“For many reasons, it can be challenging for Asian Americans to access mental health support,” AAPI said. “We are deeply concerned about the impact of this incident and other such devastating incidents on the willingness of Asian Americans to seek medical care when they need it.”
The groups said in the statement after the footage was released that Lee “should be alive today.”
“The footage and recordings released by the NJ Attorney General’s Office confirm what the Lee family has already shared with the world: that in a matter of minutes, the Fort Lee Police shot and killed Victoria, who was in no way a threat to anyone, as her mother watched helplessly,” the statement said.
“New Jersey cannot continue to be a state that regularly kills people in mental health crisis because we have not acted with the will or urgency that our most vulnerable residents and their loved ones deserve,” the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice wrote in a post on X.
The-CNN-Wire
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