The 911 call came in just after 1 a.m.: A man had requested an ambulance for his sister, who has bipolar disorder and was having a mental emergency in her Fort Lee, New Jersey, apartment. This wasn’t the first time this had happened.
Previously, emergency personnel had carefully sedated Victoria G. Lee before rushing her to the hospital, but on the morning of July 28, she was killed less than an hour after her brother called 911 twice, telling the operator his sister was in danger and had a “folding” knife.
When officers arrived, Lee, 25, refused to enter the apartment and threatened to stab one of the officers. According to body camera footage released by the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office, one officer broke through the locked front door and entered the apartment. After officers yelled for Lee to “drop the knife,” Lee advanced, causing the officer to fire his weapon.
“I can’t breathe,” Lee gasped as he lay bleeding on the ground as officers yelled at him.
In some ways, the shooting seems similar to other high-profile police killings of people with mental illnesses in New Jersey and across the nation.
But in other ways it was an anomaly: Asian American women like Lee, who is Korean American, are rarely killed by police. And Fort Lee officers rarely use lethal force. Both the borough clerk’s office and the Fort Lee Police Department declined to provide information about officer-involved killings, but Lee was the second person shot and killed by police in Fort Lee since 2013, according to data collected by the nonprofit group Mapping Police Violence.
Following the shooting, which is being investigated by the state attorney general’s office, Lee’s grieving father said he wants to see criminal charges filed against the officer who fired the fatal shot, Tony Pickens Jr.
Other Asian American residents of Fort Lee, where more than 42 percent of the population is Asian, said Lee’s killing had shattered their sense of safety and undermined their trust in local police.
For 30 years, Sylvia Kim considered Fort Lee a lovely place to raise her children, where she felt safe in a close-knit community where everyone had friends in common and attended the same church.
But not anymore. “They’re so scared,” Kim, 51, said of the members of her social circle. “Police officers have to stand up for the community and the people. If we don’t feel safe calling for help, what’s the point?”
The killings are likely to deepen distrust of police among populations that have historically been somewhat skeptical of them, and have raised concerns that people in communities where mental health issues are often stigmatized may have an additional reason not to seek help.
Kathleen C. Kim, a professor at Loyola University Law School and former Los Angeles Police Commissioner, said many Asian Americans, particularly immigrants and those who don’t speak English fluently, have a deep distrust of police officers after years of feeling ignored and misunderstood by them.
“I believe there is structural racism in police culture, and that it reflects a history of ignoring minority communities,” she said.
In a letter sent to the Fort Lee police chief, mayor and borough council, several Asian American community leaders said many residents are afraid to call 911.
“We are deeply concerned about the impact this tragic incident will have on the trust, well-being and basic sense of safety of Fort Lee residents,” the letter said.
The letter called for improved communication and transparency, and asked police officials to explain the department’s “medical assistance protocols” and to confirm that Officer Pickens has been placed on administrative leave or on administrative duties.
The police department’s policy on dealing with “emotionally disturbed individuals” instructs officers to use force if the individual behaves dangerously, but also to use de-escalation tactics, such as treating the individual with “dignity,” being kind, avoiding threats and ignoring abusive language.
As of Wednesday afternoon, neither the town administration nor the police department had responded to the letter. According to police records, Officer Pickens began his desk job on July 31. Police declined to provide any further information about his disciplinary history.
It is unclear whether Officer Pickens will be charged in the shooting. Christopher Herman, an associate professor at John Jay College of Criminology in Manhattan, said he has viewed the body camera footage and believes the shooting was justified in self-defense.
“If someone is within 10 feet of you, has a knife and is threatening you, that’s sufficient reason to use lethal force,” he said.
But Frank Edwards, an associate criminal justice professor at Rutgers University in Newark, said it appears officers did not do enough to de-escalate the situation in the minutes before the shooting.
He said he “cannot imagine a world in which the way police responded to that call would be considered appropriate.”
Before officers breached the door, they appeared to be focused on determining at what point the use of deadly force would be justified, he said.
“It wasn’t about interacting with her or her family like humans,” he said.
Dr. Edwards said Asian Americans, and especially Asian American women, are the people least likely to be killed by police in the United States.
About 2% of the 4,458 people killed by police between 2013 and 2019 were Asian, according to an analysis by Rajiv Sethi, a professor at Barnard College who uses “Police Violence Mapping” and census data to analyze police killings.
About 41 percent of those killed were white, 33 percent were black and 22 percent were Hispanic, according to Sethi’s analysis. A full breakdown by race and gender was not available, but men are far more likely to be killed by police than women.
Dr. Sethi said it’s notable that the rate of deaths among Asian Americans is lower than their share of the population, while the rate of deaths among blacks and Hispanics is higher than their share of the population.
But people with mental illness experience disproportionate rates of police violence, and Dr Edwards said Ms Lee’s case “isn’t as remarkable as it should be”.
The New Jersey Attorney General’s Office recently updated its statewide use of force policy to advise police to consider calling in local crisis response teams or mental health providers if they encounter a “barricaded individual” and to not attempt forceful resolutions if there is no imminent threat.
The policy applies to all police officers in the state and also requires law enforcement agencies to conduct quarterly training exercises with mental health professionals.
Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin said in a statement that the changes were part of an effort to promote “peaceful resolution of confrontations between police and hostage-takers.” Some of the changes are set to take effect as soon as October.
Lee’s father, KY Lee, said in an interview that while the changes may help others, the family doesn’t believe they will lead to justice.
“Even if it was negligent, it is little more than intentional homicide,” he said of the Fort Lee officers’ actions. “The result was death, and it was irreversible.”
Lee worked in a music studio and was a talented cellist who loved learning new languages and listening to Amy Winehouse, her father said.
Lee’s family described her as a talented musician. Photo courtesy of Victoria Lee’s family
Amber Reed, co-executive director of AAPI New Jersey, an Asian American and Pacific Islander advocacy group, said in many Asian cultures, seeking help to deal with mental health issues is considered “stigma.”
“They think safety means keeping their head down and not attracting attention,” Reed said.
A study by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration found that from 2015 to 2019, Asian adults were the least likely to use mental health resources.
Dr. Anthony Tobia, chairman of the psychiatry department at Rutgers University’s Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, advised people trying to help someone experiencing a mental health emergency to call their local screening center. These organizations typically operate 24-hour hotlines and work with local governments to evaluate emergency inpatients, he said.
“If there’s an imminent risk, it’s never a good idea to try to deal with it yourself,” he said.
The Black Lives Matter chapter in Paterson, New Jersey, 15 miles west of Fort Lee, has long called for systemic change in police responses to mental illness, particularly after police killed several Black people in the area who were having mental emergencies.
Lead organizer Zellie Thomas said the group has been a vocal supporter of Lee’s family and the local Korean American community.
“Black people are not the only victims of police violence,” he said, adding that the group was calling for change “not just for the safety of Black people, but for the safety of everyone.”
At a memorial for Lee last month, Ray Ukon fought back tears as he said Lee was his best friend, someone he met as a student at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
“How could this happen?” Ukon, 25, said.
Ukon said his friend enjoyed karaoke, playing the guitar, cooking for friends and watching anime, and that he also loved his corgi, Bo, who was seen on body camera footage moments before the shooting.
Ukon said Lee was “just an ordinary person” who “had very big dreams.”
