Seven weeks after Victoria Lee, a Korean American woman suffering from a mental health crisis, was shot and killed by police in Fort Lee, New Jersey, the New Jersey State Attorney’s Office has yet to release any results of its investigation, leaving her family worried. Some are even concerned that, based on past similar incidents, it could take more than two years for the State Attorney’s Office to release the results of its investigation into Lee.
According to our investigation, there have been no cases in which a resident suffering from mental health issues was shot and killed by police in New Jersey over the past two years, from 2023 to the present, in which the State Attorney’s Office has released any results of its investigation. A representative example is the March 2023 death of Najee Seabrooks in Paterson. Paterson police officers responded to the apartment where Seabrooks was suffering from a mental health crisis and shot and killed her after a four-hour standoff. A total of five officers subdued Seabrooks at the time, two of whom fired the shots. However, the state attorney’s office’s investigation into these five officers is still ongoing, a year and six months after the incident. When
New Jersey Spotlight asked the state attorney’s office in March, the first anniversary of the incident, whether the five officers were still working, the office simply stated, “We cannot answer that question because it is under investigation.” It is also unclear when the grand jury will convene to decide whether to indict these five officers. According to New Jersey Spotlight, as of March, all five officers were still working as police officers after the shooting. Last August,
52-year-old Andrew Washington, who had a mental illness, was shot and killed by police officers who responded to the scene in Jersey City. In that case as well, the state attorney’s office’s investigation into the officer who fired the shot is still pending, and all officers involved in the incident are still working. According to a civil lawsuit filed by Washington’s family last month, the family called a mental health hotline operated by a medical institution instead of 911 at the time of the incident last year, but the police arrived at the scene, and although Washington was alone in the house, the police forcibly broke down the door and shot and killed him.
After the incident, Jersey City Mayor Steve Plupp defended the police response at the scene, saying there was no problem, and the family eventually filed a civil lawsuit against the Jersey City government, police, and emergency personnel. Considering this precedent, the state prosecutor’s investigation into Victoria Lee’s death is also expected to be prolonged by one to two years.
Regarding this, Lee’s family said, “Unlike in the past, there is a lot of evidence to determine the truth through police body camera footage, etc., but it is difficult to understand why the state prosecutor’s investigation is taking more than one to two years,” and “What the family wants is the investigation results to come out quickly.”
Furthermore, even if the state prosecutor’s investigation is concluded after several years of waiting and a grand jury is held, there is no guarantee that an indictment will be made. According to research by Philip Matthew Stinson, a criminal justice expert at Bowling Green University, only 1-2% of police officers were charged with murder or manslaughter in on-duty shootings that killed people between 2005 and 2020.