On Friday 16th, police body-cam footage was publicly released of a fatal shooting that took place the month before on July 28th. The shooting came after a 911 call was placed in Fort Lee, New Jersey.
The caller placed a request for medical assistance for a mental health crisis.
Victoria Lee 911 Call
The night of the shooting victim, Victoria Lee’s brother, Chris, made two 911 calls. In both of calls, the victim’s brother had emphasized that she regularly kept a pocket knife on the person.
During the initial call, Chris was told by 911 that an ambulance was requested for his sister to go to the hospital. However, he was told that the ambulance dispatched would be accompanied by a police officer.
Chris Lee then asked the police not to come along and was told it was a necessary protocol for the medics’ safety. He then made a second call, attempting to cancel the request for the ambulance. His request was rebuffed due to the nature of the call being a mental health crisis.
The dispatcher then asked why he wanted the request to be canceled. Chris responded that she did indeed have a pocket knife on her but Victoria wasn’t threatening anyone and was only holding the foldable knife.
Police Arrival
At around 1 a.m., the police officers made their way to the New Jersey apartment building. Victoria Lee’s brother initially opens the door. Then the mother of both siblings comes to the door to confront the officers while holding the family dog.
The dog then began to bark at the confrontation, leading Victoria to grab the door while shouting to close the door. Following this, about four more officers arrived at the home.
The initial arriving officer proceeded to threaten to break the door down. Victoria Lee’s response heard on body-cam was, “Go ahead, I’ll stab you in the f******g neck!”.
Officers moved the victim’s brother and cleared the doorway, attempting to break down the door. On body-cam footage, it can be heard the police officers discussing that usually they would wait if a mental crisis person were barricaded. However, since Lee’s mother was still inside, they felt it necessary to break in as soon as possible.
Police Body-cam Footage
As the situation seemed to be escalating, the cops were still going back and forth with Victoria Lee while thinking of how to quickly control the situation.
In the audio of the body-cam footage, an officer can be heard saying,” We don’t want to shoot you, we want to help you,”. To which Lee responded, Go home pig!” .
The on-site police are then heard discussing who wanted to go “non-lethal” or “lethal”. The officer who fatally shot Lee can be heard saying “lethal” along with at least one other officer.
Then the officers went back to trying to break the door down with body slamming it and yelling at Lee to “open the door” and drop her weapon.
The officers were able to open the door revealing Victoria standing there with a blue water bottle in hand. The footage then showed Victoria approaching the officers, who were using a police shield.
However, the footage doesn’t clearly show if she was still in possession of the pocket knife at the time. The Lee family’s attorney did make a statement saying Victoria had dropped the knife before the police entered.
One of the officers then shot Lee in her chest causing her to fall to the ground. The officer who shot Victoria then pulled her body into the hallway and examined her for the gunshot wound.
Lee was then taken to the hospital and pronounced dead at 1:58 am.
Sonya Massey Police Shooting
On Monday, July 22nd footage of a young African American woman losing her life after a dispute with police in her Illinois home was released to the public. 36 year old Sonya Massey was shot multiple times by Springfield police. This fatal shooting was also very similar to the Victoria Lee case.
During the late hours of Saturday July 6th, Sonya Massey would make a 911 call at around 1 am. Massey had called to report her suspicions of a ‘prowler’ around her home. Once the police arrived at the victim’s home in when the 36 minute body-cam footage began.
Two of Springfield’s Sangamon County Sheriff deputies arrived at the front door. A few minutes later Sonya can be seen opening her front door for the police who entered her home.
Both the officers and Massey are seen to be having a calm conversation. This conversation lasted within the 36 minutes of police footage. During this police also checked the property and found no evidence of a prowler.
Sonya Massey Body-cam Footage
At one point during the body-cam footage, Massey is seen getting up to turn off a pot of boiling water sitting on her stove after being directed to by one of the officers. When she had gotten up to turn it off one of the officers backed up.
Massey then asked the officer where he was going, to which he replied, “From your hot streaming water.” Sonya can then be heard responding that she ‘rebuked the officer in the name of Jesus. ‘ Officer Grayson then responded, “You better f**king not or I swear to God I’ll f**king shoot you in the f**king face,”.
Sonya Massey then apologized and was seen ducking in the video. Officer Grayson then draws his weapon and demands she drop the pot. Three shots were then fired by Grayson, one being a headshot that ultimately killed Sonya.
The other deputy accommodating Grayson then says he’s going to grab his med-kit, to which Grayson responds, its not necessary because the wound was a headshot. Furthermore, Grayson didn’t activate his body-cam until after the killing of Sonya Massey.
The presiding judge over Grayson’s case denied him a pretrial release due to disrespectful remarks he made to other officers who arrived on the scene. As well because Gayson’s dismissal of the administration of first-aid.
Written By AriAnna Rathers
Sources:
CNN– Bodycam video shows police fatally shooting New Jersey woman whose family told 911 she was having a mental health crisis, By and ,
NPR– Body camera shows how a 911 call for medical help led to the killing of Victoria Lee, By Juliana Kim
Featured Image Courtesy of Five Furlong’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
Inset Image Courtesy of Raymond Wambsgans’ Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
