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A woman has been shot dead by police in her New Jersey apartment after her brother called 911 to report that she was armed with a knife while suffering a mental health crisis.
Fort Lee Police Department officers responded to The Pinnacle apartment complex on Main Street in Fort Lee, New Jersey, at around 1.25am on Sunday morning after the unidentified man called 911, the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office said.
The caller said that his sister was having a mental health crisis and needed to be taken to hospital. She was also holding a knife, he told the dispatcher.
When the officers arrived, they first spoke to the brother in the hallway outside the apartment before opening the apartment door to find two women, one of whom appeared to be the sister.
The two women told the officer not to come in and shut the door, prompting the officer to stand outside and knock on the door, asking them to open it up while additional officers arrived on the scene.
When they didn’t open the door, the officers breached it, the attorney general’s office said.
The sister then “approached the officers in the hallway” and one officer fired a single shot, “striking the female in the chest,” according to authorities.
Officers provided immediate medical aid to the woman before she was transported to Englewood Hospital. She was pronounced dead at around 1.58am.
The identity of the woman is not being released at this time.
It is unclear if she was armed with the knife at the time of the shooting. However, a knife was recovered from the scene, authorities said.
The New Jersey Attorney General’s Office has launched an investigation into the incident.
Under a New Jersey law passed in 2019, the Attorney General’s Office is responsible for investigations into deaths that occur during an encounter with police.
The investigation will be presented to a grand jury to determine if the evidence supports an indictment against any officers involved.
The Independent has contacted the office for further clarification.
