Early Sunday, police officers in Fort Lee, New Jersey answered a call from a man claiming that his sister was having a “mental health crisis”. The man told police that she needed to go to a hospital and that she had a knife.
Upon arriving at the apartment, the officer noticed two women inside. One of them told the officer not to enter and promptly shut the door.
After knocking and pleading with the woman to let him in only to be denied entry, the officer waited for backup and broke the door down when it arrived, forcing their way in. The attorney general’s office then said that one woman approached the policemen in the hallway and was met with a single bullet to the chest. This was reportedly the only shot taken.
After the officers attempted to give aid to the woman, she was quickly transported to a local hospital where she was pronounced dead at 1:58 a.m. Her name has yet to be released to the public.
As of now, it is still unknown whether or not the woman was still in possession of the knife at the time she was shot, but there was a knife found at the scene. As per New Jersey state law, a full investigation must be conducted for police-involved shootings. The Fort Lee Police Department declined to comment further on the matter.
