The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department has released the bodycam footage of an Asian woman being shot to death after she stabbed an officer with a kitchen knife during an attempt to serve an eviction notice.
Police shot and killed 47-year-old Yan Li on Thursday, March 3 around 12:30 p.m. at an apartment building in the 400 block of West Beech Street, ABC 10 News San Diego reports.
Officers had been attempting to serve Li an eviction notice. The video begins with sheriff’s Deputy Jason Bunch knocking on Li’s door, FOX 5 San Diego reports.
Bunch hands Li the papers and then notices a knife in her hand. He immediately draws his gun and points it at her.
“Put the knife down right now or I’m gonna (expletive) shoot,” he says, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.
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She responds by asking, “How do I know you’re not an intruder?”
Li continues to question how Bunch got into the building. She throws the paperwork aside and closes the door.
The video picks up again with another officer at the door. Li can be heard yelling from behind it.
More officers have arrived when the video picks up for the third time. This time the officers have brought dogs and are preparing to enter Li’s apartment.
According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, the video says officers learned that Li had threatened the complex manager and a maintenance worker with a knife the day before. The video claims this indicated a threat to public safety.
The officers open Li’s door and ask her to come out with her hands up. Li then emerges from her bedroom. She can be heard shouting at the officers. One of the officers yells “Bean bag!”
This appears to be the signal to fire “less lethal bean bag” rounds, FOX 5 San Diego reports. After the bean bag rounds are fired, Li emerges with a knife. Li stabs an officer, prompting the deputies and officer to open fire.
Li was pronounced dead at the scene. The sheriff’s department has said officers attempted to provide first-aid before paramedics arrived.
All four officers involved have been placed on leave.
Civil rights attorneys told the San Diego Union-Tribune that the shooting appears to be lawful because Li stabbed an officer. However, they feel the officers’ actions before the shooting escalated the conflict.
“This is just a classic example of unnecessary escalation of a conflict resulting in a lawful shooting,” John Carpenter, a Los Angeles civil rights attorney, said Friday. “The (deputy’s) job was done, he’s a process server … you serve the process and then leave.”
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