Victoria Lee’s family says she was experiencing a mental health crisis in the early morning hours of July 28, 2024, when police broke down the front door of their apartment and shot Lee as she approached them with a knife in her hand.

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The Lee family lawsuit accuses Fort Lee police of excessive force, warrantless entry, and civil conspiracy, and alleges Lee’s killing represents a violation of the federal Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act. It says the borough’s dispatch policy automatically sends multiple armed officers to any call involving an “emotionally disturbed person” with no option to send a mental health expert, while medical calls receive paramedics and no police officers. That policy denied Lee an opportunity to obtain the same result provided to callers without mental health disabilities who seek assistance from 911, the complaint says.

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Lee’s brother called 911 just after 1 a.m. the day of the shooting and requested an ambulance to take her to a mental health clinic (she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2016), according to the complaint. Lee’s brother said she was having a “mental breakdown,” the complaint says.

The dispatcher told him an ambulance and officer would be sent, the complaint states, but the brother said he believed “police would only make things worse.” When her brother called a second time, he mentioned Lee was holding a knife but not threatening anyone with it, and the dispatcher said the request for authorities could not be canceled.

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