Police Shot and Killed a Woman in New Jersey Whose Family Called 911 to Say She Was Having a Mental Health Problem

Police fatally shot Victoria Lee, a 25-year-old woman whose brother had called 911 for help during a mental health crisis in Fort Lee, New Jersey, last month. Body camera footage from the shooting was shared on Friday.

The New Jersey Attorney General’s Office says that at least five Fort Lee police officers went to the family’s apartment on July 28. When the police couldn’t get inside, one of them broke down the door to the apartment, as shown in a video shared by the attorney general’s office.

Footage shows that Lee was shot in the chest and killed by a cop five seconds after her front door was forced open.

A lawyer for Lee’s family, Henry Cho, said at a press conference Tuesday that Lee had been diagnosed with bipolar illness before her mental health crisis. Cho said Lee wasn’t dangerous.

“Even though they tried to keep things from getting worse and made it clear that Victoria was not violent, the police responded aggressively, broke into the apartment, and fatally shot Victoria, who was holding a plastic water bottle at the time,” Cho said.

The incident is being looked into because how cops across the country handle mental health crises is getting more and more attention. A 36-year-old Black woman in Illinois named Sonya Massey was shot in her home just three weeks before Lee. She had called 911 for help. Massey’s mother called 911 the day before she was killed to say that her daughter was completely crazy but not dangerous.

A press conference was held on Tuesday by Adrian Lee, president of the Korean-American Association of New Jersey. He said 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 don’t need violence; they need understanding and the right kind of help,” he said. Concerns have also been raised by advocacy groups that the killing of Lee, an Asian man, could make people in New Jersey afraid to get mental health help.

Lee’s family wants to know what happened that night that killed the young woman.

“Victoria was a loved one with a bright future, and her death is unbearable.” “The Lee family is determined to get justice and make sure the whole truth about what happened is known,” Cho said.

The attorney general’s office said Friday that the shooting death is still being looked into.

For Lee Police to say something, CNN has asked them. It has been tried by CNN to get in touch with Cho and the Bergen County Medical Examiner’s Office.

Brother tried to hang up the 911 call

Lee’s brother called 911 twice on the night of the killing.

Cho said, “Her brother Chris called 911 twice to ask for an ambulance, stressing that she was mentally ill and that she had a small pocket knife that she used to open packages with her.”

His sister was having a mental health problem and needed to be taken to a nearby hospital by ambulance. This was the first call he got. An audio recording of the 911 call provided by the attorney general’s office shows that he asked the dispatcher not to send police with the medics when he was told that they would be safe without them. The dispatcher told him that the medics’ safety depended on the police being there.

Lee’s brother then called 911 a second time to ask that the first call be canceled. He was told that this was not possible for calls about mental health emergencies and that cops would be there soon. The call operator asked Lee’s brother why he wanted to end the call, and the recording shows that he said it was because his sister had a knife but wasn’t threatening anyone.

His words were, “She’s just holding the knife.” He also said that the knife was “foldable.”

The video shows what happened before and after.

Police were called to Lee’s house around 1:25 a.m. ET for a report of a shooting. Four different body camera angles, some of which are pixelated or blurred, show the moments before the fatal shot.

A body cam video from Fort Lee police shows an officer arriving at the family’s flat and Lee’s brother opening the door. An officer asks Lee’s brother if he is the person “dealing with the mental health crisis” and the person with the knife. Lee’s brother replies that the person is his sister.

The door is opened again by a woman holding a barking dog. The attorney general’s office says this is Lee’s mother. Lee walks in from the background and tells her mother to “close the f**king door.” She then closes the door over her head.

Soon after, at least four more cops show up.

There is a video of someone named Lee yelling, “Go ahead, I’ll stab you in the f**king neck,” while the first cop yells that he is going to break down the door.

Someone sees a cop reach for his gun, but he stops to grab Lee’s brother and lead him away. Another police officer steps in and leads Lee’s brother away from the door to the flat.

In the video, you can hear another cop say, “We don’t want to shoot you, we want to help you.”

Lee tells the pig, “Go home.”

Police in Fort Lee can be heard talking about “who wants to go lethal” and “less lethal” on tape. It is said that at least two cops, including the one who shot and killed Lee, will “go lethal.” At least one police officer can be heard saying that he will not use deadly force.

It’s usually blocked off, so we wait, but there’s someone inside, says another officer to the group. Someone is going to get tools to open the door. We need to leave.

The cop who shot and killed Lee then starts to try to break down the door by body-slamming into it while yelling “Open the door!” They can be heard telling Lee to drop the gun or they will break down the door.

The video shows Lee and her mother standing in the hallway when the door opens. Lee is holding a big blue water jug and taking steps toward the door.

On video, a cop can be seen putting up a police shield in front of Lee.

One police officer yelled, “Drop the knife!”

A news report from the attorney general’s office says that a knife was found at the scene. The video doesn’t make it clear if Lee had the knife in his hand when the police opened the door. Cho said Lee put down the knife before the police came into the room.

The office of the attorney general said Lee went up to the police and was shot and killed.

When Lee was shot and lying on the ground, the officer told him over and over to put down the knife and then asked where it was, to which someone replied, “Right here.” The four movies from Lee’s body camera don’t show if she had a knife on her when she was shot.

The police officer who shot and killed Lee pulls her by her feet into the hallway while she is asked if she is okay and to show them where she was shot. You can hear one cop calling for towels.

Around 1:58 a.m., Lee was declared dead at the hospital where she had been taken.

Cho said Tuesday, “The family is very worried about the police’s use of deadly force that wasn’t necessary.”