Victoria Lee Shooting Update: Fort Lee Officer Cleared

A state grand jury has declined to bring criminal charges against a Fort Lee police officer who shot and killed 25-year-old Victoria G. Lee during a mental health emergency in her apartment last summer, officials said Tuesday, July 15.

Victoria Lee was shot and killed by police during a mental health crisis last summer, officials said. Her family says the Fort Lee incident could have been prevented.

The decision, announced by the Office of Public Integrity and Accountability (OPIA), came nearly one year after Lee was killed by Officer Tony Pickens Jr. at The Pinnacle apartments on Main Street in Fort Lee.

The panel voted “no bill” on Monday, July 14, following a review of 911 calls, body-worn camera footage, taser video, witness interviews, ballistics reports, photographs, and the autopsy, New Jersey State Attorney General Matthew Platkin’s office said.

(Watch bodycam footage of the incident released by Platkin here (warning: viewer discretion advised).

According to the investigation, Lee’s brother called 911 at 1:14 a.m. on July 28, 2024, saying his sister was experiencing a mental health crisis and needed to go to Valley Hospital in Paramus. When he called back five minutes later to cancel the request, he informed dispatchers that his sister had a knife, OPIA said.

The dispatcher responded that mental health calls could not be canceled and that officers would arrive shortly. According to OPIA, when asked whether Lee was using the knife aggressively, the caller stated: “She’s just holding it.” He described the knife as “foldable.”

Officer Pickens arrived at the apartment complex around 1:25 a.m. and spoke briefly with the brother in the hallway before opening the door to find Lee and her mother inside. Lee shut the door and locked it, according to the report.

Outside, officers knocked repeatedly, and a supervisor ordered that the door be forced open, citing concerns for the safety of Lee and her mother.

As officers warned that the door would be broken down, OPIA says Lee shouted: “Go ahead, I’ll stab you in the f—ing neck.” She also said: “Shoot me if you want to.” A supervisor responded: “We don’t want to shoot you, we just want to talk with you.”

Officer Pickens eventually forced the door open around 1:28 a.m., investigators said. Lee was holding a five-gallon water bottle in one hand and an object in the other. Her mother was holding onto her arm. As Lee broke free and stepped toward the hallway, Officer Pickens fired a single shot, striking her in the chest. Lee was transported to Englewood Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 1:58 a.m. A knife was recovered at the scene, officials said.

In a statement issued on Friday, Aug. 9, 2024,

Lee’s family said officers misunderstood the situation

and “could have handled it differently.”

They said Lee was diagnosed with Bipolar II disorder in 2017, and had withdrawn from college in 2021. “Since then, she managed her condition through work, travel, and music,” the family said. Lee had been working at a music studio in Manhattan and had moved to Fort Lee for a fresh start in January 2023.

Her family said that on the night of the shooting, Lee had been rolling on the bed, briefly shouting, and lightly tapping her head against the wall, signs they recognized as distress.

“Victoria was not holding the pocketknife as a weapon,” they said. “She was not, and had never been, a violent individual, even during previous episodes.”

They also said her brother Chris told the 911 dispatcher about the small knife and asked that police not enter, but was told they were required to respond.

According to the family, the officer kicked in the door just after Chris was escorted away, and Lee was shot almost immediately. “At that moment… almost immediately, a gunshot was fired,” the statement reads. “The bullet struck Victoria on one side and exited the other, lethally puncturing her vital organs.”

As she fell, her water bottle dropped, and her blood mixed with the spilled water, the family said. Her mother brought towels to officers attempting to give first aid.

“This tragic turn of events… occurred despite the family’s efforts to cooperate with authorities and communicate Victoria’s mental state to the 911 operators and responding officers,” the family said.

“Victoria was never a threat… the responding police officers misunderstood the situation and escalated what had been a calm and nonthreatening situation into a dangerous one.”