Earlier this week, a vigil was held to remember the life of Andrew Jerome Washington, who was shot and killed by Jersey City police after experiencing a mental health crisis at the end of August. Doris Ervin, Washington’s aunt said, “I think he spoke out of turn with the comments he made about Drew,” referring to Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop. “It made me feel, as his aunt, that he didn’t care … We just called to get help for someone in a mental crisis. So you’re telling me my nephew didn’t deserve to see a medical health professional that helped with mental illness?”

Fulop said the first response at the scene was from mental health professionals, who deemed the situation dangerous enough to call in police. He said, “Look, the politically easy thing to do within the Democratic Party circles is to criticize the police and be in that camp. My job as mayor is to call balls and strikes.”

He said, “Imagine they didn’t try and enter the room. We’d be having a different conversation about how could the police sit outside when they were aware that he could harm himself in that situation, how could they let somebody bleed out and die when they’re five feet away outside the room.”

The state attorney general’s office said it is investigating and could release the body-cam footage of what took place as early as next week.