Three St. Paul police officers were legally justified when they fatally shot a woman in her mother’s home last May, the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office announced Monday.

Officers responded on May 6 after a woman called 911 and screamed, “My daughter is committing suicide!” according to a transcript of the call.

Body camera footage released by police soon after showed that officers went in a room of the home in the Payne-Phalen neighborhood, and the woman who was reportedly feeling suicidal pulled a gun from under a blanket and pointed it at officers. Three officers shot the 41-year-old woman.

The Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the woman as Pepsi Heinl, which her family said was her married name. They referred to her as Pepsi Benjamin.

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigated and referred the case to the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office.County Attorney John Choi wrote in a memo that it was “a sad and tragic case for all of those involved.”

“The events that transpired on May 6, 2024, will forever impact all of those that loved Pepsi Lee Heinl and the three officers who had no other reasonable choice to do something different under these circumstances,” he wrote. “We all wish there could have been a different outcome.”

From 911 call to gun and shooting

Benjamin’s mother told the BCA that her daughter came to live with her about a week earlier. She said she’d been worried about her daughter’s mental health. When Benjamin offered to give her mother her jewelry box as a gift, her mother asked if she was going to try to die by suicide; Benjamin said she was not, according to a memo from prosecutors who reviewed the case.

Benjamin’s mother encouraged her to move on from her husband, from whom she was estranged, and encouraged her to go back to school.

On May 6, Benjamin’s mother was doing dishes when she heard gurgling sounds coming from her daughter’s bedroom and found her on the ground unconscious. She said her lips were blue, she thought she’d overdosed from medication and she revived her. She called 911 about 7:20 p.m.

When officers arrived at the home on Rose Avenue near Frank Street, they loudly announced “Police!” and heard a woman saying, “We’re back here!” They found Benjamin and her mother sitting near each other on a bedroom floor.

Officer Yengkong Lor asked, “What’s going on?” and Benjamin’s mother said, “She was turning blue on her mouth! And she wasn’t breathing!”

Officer Chee Lao asked Benjamin three times if she was OK. She was heard quietly saying, “I’m tired,” but her mother said, “Oh, God. She’s not OK.”

Then, Officer Chiking Chazonkhueze asked Benjamin if she took any drugs. Her mother said, “That’s what I asked her.”

Benjamin “suddenly reached” toward a tote bag and blanket and stood holding a handgun. Her mother reached toward Benjamin to try to stop her. Benjamin pointed the gun “in a fast-moving sweeping motion initially toward Officer Lor and then moving toward Officer Lao and Chazonkhueze,” the memo said.

“The three surprised officers loudly yelled at Ms. Heinl as they each quickly removed their handguns from their respective duty belts and collectively fired 18 shots at Ms. Heinl, striking her 15 times,” the memo continued.

Bought gun for work

Eighteen shell casings found at the scene by the BCA were identified as having been fired by the three officers. There were three spent shell casings found near Benjamin’s body, which “could not be scientifically identified as having been fired from her gun” and it wasn’t determined whether she shot her gun, the memo said.

Benjamin bought her gun at a gun shop in November 2023. Her obituary said she most recently worked as a security officer, and her mother told the BCA that the gun was for her job.

Benjamin’s mother provided BCA investigators with a 30-page handwritten journal entry, signed by Benjamin and addressed to her mother. The entries expressed Benjamin’s “troubled emotional state at the time of her encounter with the officers and contains suicidal ideations,” the memo said.

Toxicology results showed no alcohol or drugs in Benjamin’s system.

Benjamin’s mother told the BCA of the officers shooting her daughter: “They did it, so she didn’t hurt anybody, the cops, it wasn’t their fault, they were there to help me, to help her, to get her into a hospital,” the memo quoted.

At a rally outside the Governor’s Residence in St. Paul in July, Benjamin’s mother told the people gathered that she’d called for help for her daughter.

“She needed help. I needed help for her and if I’d had known they were going to kill my daughter, I would never have called … them,” according to a video clip posted to the New Hughes Video Feed Facebook page.

Benjamin was born in Duluth, Minn., graduated from high school and attended Century College, her obituary said. She had a son.