State AG releases recordings of fatal New Brunswick police shooting

Deborah Terrel was suffering from a mental health episode, according to her family when she was fatally shot by a New Brunswick police officer at a senior housing complex on Aug. 8.

Naomi Yané

Sep 4, 2025, 2:46 AM

Updated 2 hr ago

Share:

The Attorney General’s Office released bodycam footage and the 911 call from a police-involved shooting that left a 68-year-old woman dead.
Deborah Terrel was suffering from a mental health episode, according to her family, when she was fatally shot by a New Brunswick police officer at a senior housing complex on Aug. 8.
Body camera footage shows the moments Deborah Terrel was first struck with pepper spray, then a Taser and ultimately, a bullet by New Brunswick police. According to the investigation, the ordeal started hours before the fatal blow. Police initially got a call around 4 a.m. to an apartment building on Neilson Street about a female resident who was disturbing other residents.
"I have a tenant on the (bleep) floor. I'm the (bleep) and she keeps going in and out of her apartment with a huge knife and she just went to the apartment next door and was banging on the door with the knife," one caller said.
When officers arrived, they tried to talk to Terrell, who refused and wouldn’t open the door. Later that morning, just after 7:30 a.m., police were called back to the building because Terrell was repeatedly going in and out of her apartment and threatening other tenants with a knife, a story corroborated by another 911 call.
"She was putting the knife and trying to stick it under the door and then it looked like she failed at that, and then she put the knife back and was walking down the hall with it," the caller said.
According to the investigation, officers contacted emergency medical services for an evaluation. At 7:41 a.m., the exchange with police continued with officers asking Terrell to open the door and talk to them and for her to drop the knife. Terrell could be heard shouting from behind the closed door and telling officers that there was a man in the apartment with her. She comes out one more time with a knife pointed at officers.
The video also shows Terrell moving a knife underneath the door gap. Moments later, officers lined up on one side of the door and, according to the investigation, were assigned “lethal” and “less lethal” duties. Moments later, Terrell opened the door and stepped into the hallway while holding a knife.
Police say after Terrel was hit with pepper spray and a Taser, she initially turned around and backed into her apartment, but then turned back toward officers and advanced in their direction with the knife in her hand - and that’s when she was struck by the fatal blow.
Terrell was pronounced dead at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick. News 12 spoke with her family last month, and they said she had a history of mental health issues and recently had a change in medication. According to the investigation, a 12-inch knife was recovered at the scene.