The office of New Jersey’s attorney general said it was investigating the death of a woman who was fatally shot by an officer responding to a 911 call about a mental health crisis at an apartment over the weekend.
The woman, who has not been publicly identified by the authorities, was shot once in the chest at an apartment complex in Fort Lee, N.J., according to a statement from the attorney general’s office. Police officers at the scene provided medical aid and she was taken to Englewood Hospital, where she died.
What exactly happened in the moments leading up to the Fort Lee shooting is still unclear. The shooting comes in the wake of the fatal police shooting in Illinois on July 6 of another woman, Sonya Massey, also after a 911 call. That killing has drawn public outrage and protest.
Early Sunday, a man called 911 and said that his sister was having a mental health crisis, was wielding a knife and needed to go to the hospital, according to the statement from the attorney general, Matthew J. Platkin. Officers from the Fort Lee Police Department responded to a home at the Pinnacle apartment complex at 69 Main Street around 1:25 a.m., the statement said.
One of the first officers to arrive at the scene spoke to the caller in the hallway outside the apartment, the statement said. Then the officer opened the apartment door and saw two women: one who appeared to be the caller’s sister and another woman. Neither the caller nor the other woman have been publicly identified.
The pair of women told the officer not to enter and shut the door, according to the statement. The officer stood outside, knocking on the door and asking the women to open it while waiting for other officers to arrive.
Police officers then “breached the door,” the statement said. The sister approached the officers in the hallway, the statement said, and one officer shot her once in the chest.
Investigators recovered a knife from the scene, according to the statement.
New Jersey has an alternative response program called Arrive Together that pairs a state trooper with a certified mental health screener and crisis specialist to respond to 911 calls involving mental health crises. The attorney general’s office said the program was active in all 21 New Jersey counties, but that Fort Lee was not a participant.
Paula Rogovin, 76, a co-founder of Teaneck Peace and Justice Vigil, a New Jersey community group, said she was angry to see another person be killed by the police and concerned that it seemed like the officer’s first reaction was to shoot.
“It is just wrong,” she said with a deep sigh. “It has to stop.”
Ms. Rogovin said there was no reason or excuse for the shooting because there were local trainings on responding to mental health crises available to Bergen County residents through 262-HELP.