New York Attorney General Letitia James on Friday, November 13, released the body-worn camera footage from the police encounter that killed Wei Chan in Manhattan, as her Office of Special Investigation (OSI) continues to investigate the August shooting.
Source: New York Attorney General's Office
Chan, 54, died on August 16, 2026, following an encounter with New York City Police Department (NYPD) officers inside a building on Ludlow Street on Manhattan's Lower East Side. The footage release is a transparency step only: the Attorney General's office stressed that publishing the video is not an opinion on guilt, innocence, or whether anyone will be charged.
What the Attorney General's account says happened on August 16
On August 16, NYPD officers went to the building on Ludlow Street following a 911 call reporting an assault. As officers began walking up the staircase, they saw Chan, who was allegedly holding a cleaver and coming down the staircase toward officers, the Attorney General's office said.
The officers told Chan to show his hands and drop the cleaver, but he failed to comply, and officers fired their guns, striking him, according to the official account. Chan was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Officers recovered a cleaver at the scene.
Contemporaneous NYPD reporting in August added further alleged detail, which OSI has not confirmed in its releases: police said Chan had allegedly attacked his 75-year-old father before the stairwell encounter, that three officers fired a total of nine shots, and that Assistant Chief Melissa Eger briefed reporters that evening. Police said Chan had no criminal record but did have a documented mental health history with the department. Those August claims remain allegations attributed to the NYPD account.
Source: Officer.com
Why the footage is released before the investigation ends
The Attorney General's office said the footage was released under James's standing directive that camera footage obtained during an OSI investigation be made public to increase transparency and strengthen public trust. The release carries a warning that the video contains content viewers may find disturbing.
Under New York State Executive Law Section 70-b, OSI assesses every incident reported to it in which a police officer or peace officer may have caused a person's death, whether the officer was on duty or off duty and whether the person who died was armed or unarmed, in custody or not. If the assessment indicates an officer may have caused the death, OSI conducts a full investigation, as it is doing here.
A footage release is not a finding. OSI has announced no conclusion about whether the shooting was justified, and no charging decision has been made public. The video now lets the public see the stairwell encounter for itself while investigators finish their work — the distinction between transparency and verdict that the Attorney General's office itself drew in Friday's release.
Background and what happens next
The August shooting drew immediate city-level attention: Mayor Zohran Mamdani said at the time that he had been briefed, that the incident would undergo an internal investigation, and that body-camera footage would be released — the step completed on Friday, nearly three months later.
Source: Internewscast (August reporting)
OSI opened its investigation on August 19, three days after the shooting. Its work continues, and the office has given no timeline for a final report. Until OSI concludes, the official position remains the one stated on Friday: the investigation is ongoing, and the footage speaks only for what the cameras captured.