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At about 1:14 a.m. on July 28, 2024, a man called 911 from The Pinnacle apartment complex on Main Street in Fort Lee and reported that his sister, Victoria G. Lee, 25, was having a mental health crisis. He asked for her to be taken to Valley Hospital in Paramus. The dispatcher told him an ambulance and an officer would be sent.

At about 1:19 a.m., the same caller tried to cancel the call. The dispatcher told him mental health calls could not be canceled and asked why. The caller said his sister had a foldable knife and was "just holding it." Fort Lee police upgraded the seriousness of the call.

Officer Tony Pickens, Jr. arrived first at about 1:25 a.m. He spoke with the caller in the hallway, then opened the apartment door and saw Lee and her mother, who was holding a small barking dog. Both women told him not to come in. Lee reached over her mother, closed the door on Pickens, and the door was locked.

Lee's brother said he did not have a key. As more officers arrived, Pickens knocked several times and asked the women to open the door. A supervisory officer determined officers needed to make immediate entry. Pickens warned through the door that he would have to break it down. Lee replied, "Go ahead, I'll stab you in the fucking neck." She also said, "Shoot me if you want to." The supervisory officer answered that they did not want to shoot her and wanted to talk.

Officers moved the brother down the hallway and assigned lethal and less-lethal roles. At about 1:28 a.m., Pickens forced the door open. Lee was standing about two steps from the door, holding a five-gallon water bottle in her right hand and an object in her left hand. Officers yelled, "Drop the knife!" Lee's mother was holding Lee's left hand, but Lee broke free and took two steps toward the officers in the hallway. As she was about to cross the doorway threshold, Pickens fired one shot, striking her in the chest.

Officers provided medical aid. Lee was taken to Englewood Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at about 1:58 a.m. A knife was recovered at the scene. On July 14, 2025, a state grand jury voted "no bill," and no criminal charges were filed against Pickens.

Listen to the 911 calls and dispatch audio for this incident here.