St. Paul PD releases bodycam footage of fatal police shooting on East Side

Body camera video was released Friday showing a fatal police-involved shooting earlier this week on St. Paul’s East Side.

Bodycam clips released Friday afternoon by the St. Paul Police Department show officers responding to a home in the 1100 block of Rose Avenue East for a reported suicide in progress around 7:15 p.m. Monday.

RELATED: Woman dies after being shot by police in St. Paul

The compilation, which lasts just over four minutes, shows the officers storming into the house and into a room with two women. One of them then tells officers that the second woman is “not feeling well.”

About 20 seconds after the officers entered the room, bodycam footage shows the second woman standing up, holding a gun and pointing it at the officers. The officers and the first woman quickly yell “no” and tell the woman to stop before the officers fire shots, hitting the second woman.

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) on Friday morning identified the deceased woman as 41-year-old Pepsi Lee Heinl and the officers as Chiking Chazonkhueze, Chee Lao and Yengkong Lor. Chazonkhueze is said to have three and a half years of law enforcement experience, Lor has three years and Lao has three months.

Although officers provided assistance, according to the BCA, Heinl died at the scene of the accident. All three officers fired their weapons and all are now on critical incident leave, the BCA confirmed.

“These are never easy events. This is not an outcome that anyone wanted, but we are committed to remaining faithful and patient as the BCA investigates this and ensuring that this process continues unhindered,” said St. Paul Police Chief Axel Henry, on Friday afternoon.

Henry said officers field “thousands of these types of calls” each year, but stressed how quickly the situation has changed.

“This shows how important it is that we as a nation, but also as a city, really pay attention to how we deal with people in crises. “It escalated very quickly,” Henry said, noting that an officer briefly leaned over and tried to help Heinl and suddenly she was standing there with a gun and was shot.

The BCA says it is still reviewing the body camera video that captured the shooting and will forward the information to the Ramsey County District Attorney’s Office, which will ultimately decide whether to file formal charges. A weapon was recovered at the scene.

Henry shared that SPPD has a community outreach and stabilization team that can respond to many crisis and non-criminal calls. However, he said the department is not large enough to have officers dedicated to the task around the clock, so all police officers are trained and the outreach team typically conducts follow-up work after officers respond to the incident had responded to the first report.

Click here to view bodycam video released by St. Paul Police on Friday. WARNING: Some viewers may find the content disturbing.

Click on the media player below to watch St. Paul Police discuss the release of the body camera video.

Here is a list of suicide prevention and mental health resources:

If you believe someone is at risk for suicide, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommends the following:

• Ask questions about whether the person is having suicidal thoughts.
• Call the US National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
• Seek help from a doctor or mental health professional. If it is an emergency, take the person to a hospital.
• Remove any items from a person’s home that could potentially be used in a suicide.
• If possible, do not leave the person alone until help is available.