Hamburg, N.Y. (WBEN) - More details have come to light courtesy of the Hamburg Police Department regarding last Friday's officer-involved shooting which resulted in the death of a Jamestown woman, 36-year-old Lisa Haight.
Hamburg police initially responded to a call from a Willet Road resident who tried to forcibly remove Haight from his residence.
"The caller then reports to dispatch that he is physically fighting to remove her from his house. The caller then reports he managed to physically remove the female and that she is outside banging on his doors and windows and then he believes she may have entered his shed," described Hamburg's Chief of Police, Peter Dienes.
"The first officer arrives and is informed by the caller that the female is out of her mind acting crazy and possibly on something. The second officer arrives on Willet Road and the lock on the shed is found to be broken. The officers search the shed but no one is inside. So they are able to identify some footprints in the snow and they start to track the female on foot."
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The responding officers eventually track the suspect to the rear of 3043 McKinley Parkway, where they found a back entrance door to be open.
The police announce their entry into the residence and find the house to be ransacked with "items spewed about."
Upon searching the dimly-lit house, they found Haight in the bathroom behind a shower curtain, naked and appeared to be attempting to cut herself with a knife.
After verbal commands to drop the knife using police de-escalation techniques, Ms. Haight was eventually persuaded to drop the knife, two officers attempted to take her into physical custody using handcuffs.
As the officers were struggling to control Ms. Haight, she made stabbing and slashing movements with the object that she picked up after she stepped out of the bathtub against them.
This included direct stabbing motions which struck one officer in the leg and a slashing motion near and across his face.
All three officers involved believed she was holding a knife which prompted one officer to fire his sidearm to stop what they believed was a knife attack. One officer fired three times, striking Haight once in the chest and two rounds in each leg.
In addition, officers claim the encounter took place within very tight quarters in a narrow hallway with poor lighting conditions and was later discovered that multiple electric breakers were turned off.
Chief Dienes believes that Haight was the one who turned off the circuit breakers.
Immediate First Aid and EMS care services were provided and administered, but she was soon pronounced dead on the scene.
It was later discovered the object that Haight obtained for slashing and stabbing motions was a pen-like utility light. No body cams were on the officers nor provided to the officers at the time. Chief Dienes reports that the should get body cameras to the department sometime this year.
It is reported that Haight stabbed someone prior to the events that took place on Willet Road and her police contacts include complaints for weapon offenses and an extensive drug history.
"She was a passenger in a private transport van. That van was enroute to a methadone clinic in Buffalo when the stabbing assault occurred. Ms. Haight attacked a fellow passenger by stabbing her repeatedly in the head, face and shoulder, resulting in serious interest in serious injuries. I can honestly tell you, I have seen the photos of that victim and they are horrific," said Chief Dienes.
The Town of Hamburg Police Department says that so far, it appears that the use of deadly force was justified. The investigation is still ongoing and by statute of the New York Attorney General's Office, they are formally reviewing the use of deadly force component of this case.
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