The horrific moment when police shot and killed a California woman when she stabbed a sheriff’s deputy with a butcher’s knife after threatening another officer with what appeared to be another knife during an eviction was caught on video.
Police footage shows San Diego Deputy Sheriff Jason Bunch serving 47-year-old Yang Li with an eviction notice at her apartment, Acqua Vista Condominiums, on March 3.
“Hey, here’s the eviction notice, okay? Notice to…” Bunch Lee says before realizing she’s holding what looks like a cleaver or butcher’s knife in her right hand and pulls out his weapon.
“Put down the knife, put down the damn knife… Now. Drop the knife. You will be shot. If you come near me with this knife, I will shoot you. Don’t make me do this, don’t make me shoot you, he warns Lee.
In the edited video, Lee asks Bunch, “How do I know you’re not an intruder?” She tosses the eviction papers on the floor and slurs something before slamming the door.
Another deputy sheriff tried to speak to Lee through the door, police said, and a K-9 squad was called in to defuse the situation.
Officers then broke into Li’s fifth-floor apartment and found her barricaded in her bedroom with a chef’s knife apparently different from the one she used to open the door.
The law enforcement officers who shot at Lee were identified by police as Deputies Javier Medina and David Williams, a sheriff’s sergeant. Daniel Nickel and officer Rogelio Medina.
Lee’s lifeless body can be seen on video as one officer replies that he was stabbed when Bunch asks if anyone was hurt.
Police said a K-9 officer was stabbed in the chest with Lee. He was treated at UC San Diego Medical Center and released the same day.
Scroll down for video
Police shot dead Yan Li, 47, after she stabbed a San Diego police officer with what appeared to be a butcher’s knife. Police said one of the K-9 unit officers was stabbed in the chest by Lee. He was treated at UC San Diego Medical Center and released the same day.
Li slammed the door first. The officers burst into her unit, and she rushed at them.
After Deputy Bunch hands Lee the eviction papers, he can be heard growing more distraught when he realizes she is holding a butcher knife.
Lee then accuses Bunch of being a fake cop, asks where his badge used to be, and throws the eviction papers on the floor.
Lee reportedly threatened the building manager and maintenance staff before helpers arrived on the scene, but it is unclear if they were aware of the incident.
“While the deputies were waiting for more resources, an employee in the building told them that the same woman had threatened the maintenance staff with a knife the day before,” SDPD Lieutenant Matt Dobbs told NBC.
“The deputies tried to contact [her] about 45 minutes, but were unable to enlist her support.”
According to police, a deputy sheriff’s officer tried to speak to Lee through the door, and a K-9 squad was called in to de-escalate the situation.
The law enforcement officers who shot Lee were identified by police as Deputy Sheriffs Javier Medina and David Williams, Sheriff Sergeant Daniel Nickel, and Officer Rogelio Medina.
Lee’s lifeless body could be seen on video, as one officer replied that he had been stabbed when Bunch asked if anyone had been hurt.
An incident at an apartment complex at the 400 block of West Beach Street is being investigated, and the four police officers who fired the shots have been placed on duty.
About 50 minutes later they entered the apartment using a bunch of keys.
The police said that there was good reason to arrest Li for assault with a deadly weapon because she was a threat to public safety.
An incident at an apartment complex at the 400 block of West Beach Street is being investigated, and the four officers who fired the shots have been placed on duty as per protocol.
It appears that they first shot Lee with less-lethal bean-bag bullets, and then repeatedly fired real bullets when she wasn’t deterred, as the video showed her bleeding through her clothes.
“This is just a classic example of unnecessary escalation leading to a legitimate shooting,” civil rights attorney John Carpenter told the San Diego Tribune.
“The (deputy’s) job has been done, he’s a server process… you serve the process and then you leave.”
Carpenter also criticized law enforcement for failing to quickly defuse the situation, noting that Lee was apparently “a woman in crisis”.
“They learned this information after the service was completed,” he added. “They didn’t go there to investigate an ongoing call for a knife attack.”