Community calls for police officer to stand trial in deadly shooting of woman in Fort Lee, NJ
FORT LEE, New Jersey (WABC) -- A rally in New Jersey on Saturday called for an officer to stand trial in the deadly police-involved shooting of a woman in Fort Lee.
Friends, family and community members in Fort Lee held up signs and chanted in support of Victoria Lee, who was shot and killed by police at her home in July 2024.
The rally comes after a grand jury decided not to indict the police officer who shot and killed the 25-year-old.
Last July, police responded to the Pinnacle Apartment Complex on Main Street after a man reported that his sister was having a mental-health crisis and needed to go to the hospital.
Officers met the man in the hallway and when they tried to open the door to the apartment, they saw two women, one appearing to be Lee. The women told the responding officer not to come in and shut the door, and the officer complied and stood outside knocking and asking the women to open the door while other officers arrived.
When the women would not comply, the police eventually opened the door. The released bodycam video shows officers knocking down the door.
As Lee approached the police in the hallway, an officer fired a single shot, striking her in the chest.
"We called for help for my daughter, and instead within minutes police broke down our door and shot her," said Lee's father at the rally. "We still cannot understand why asking help and following police officer's instruction brought us my daughter's death."
Authorities say Lee was holding a knife during the time of the shooting. However, Lee's family says she was not being violent, and had dropped the knife before officers broke down the apartment door.
Lee's family now wants officers to know how to de-escalate tense mental-health calls, including training them to respond with non-deadly force.
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