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Fort Worth woman was playing video games at home when officer killed her Fort Worth officer who shot woman dead in her home resigns
(about 2 hours later)
Protesters gathered on Sunday in Fort Worth to call for the arrest of the white police officer who shot dead a black woman in her home after arriving to conduct a welfare check. The family of Atatiana Jefferson called on Monday for the firing and prosecution of the Fort Worth police officer who shot her dead inside her bedroom after arriving to conduct a welfare check.
Atatiana Jefferson, 28, was playing video games with her eight-year-old nephew in the early hours of Saturday morning, according to her family’s lawyer, when she was killed by an officer who had not parked in front of the residence or announced a police presence and appears to have given her no time to respond to his initial command.
'That's murder': Fort Worth police officer shoots woman inside her home'That's murder': Fort Worth police officer shoots woman inside her home
“The officer observed a person through a rear window in the residence and fired a shot at that person,” Lt Brandon O’Neil of the Fort Worth police department told reporters on Sunday. The interim chief of Fort Worth police, Ed Kraus, subsequently said the officer, named as Aaron Dean, had resigned and would have been fired had he not done so. Kraus said Dean may face charges.
“The officer did not announce that he was a police officer prior to shooting. What the officer observed and why he did not announce ‘police’ will be addressed as the investigation continues.” Jefferson, 28, was playing video games with her eight-year-old nephew in the early hours of Saturday morning, her family’s lawyer said, when she was killed by the officer who was outside the property, had not parked in front of the house, did not identify himself and appears to have given her no time to respond to his initial command before shooting through a window.
“You didn’t hear the officer shout, ‘Gun, gun, gun,’” attorney Lee Merritt said after viewing video taken from a Fort Worth officer’s body camera. “He didn’t have time to perceive a threat. That’s murder.” “There is simply no justification for his actions,” Ashley Carr, Jefferson’s oldest sister, said at a press conference on Monday morning. “She was enjoying her life in her home, where no one would have expected her life to be in harm’s way, especially not in the hands of a civil servant who had taken the oath to serve and protect.
O’Neil said the unnamed officer, who has been with the department for about 18 months, would be interviewed on Monday by the department’s major case unit. “We demand justice for Atatiana through an independent, thorough and transparent process.”
“We have communicated with the family and shared our serious and heartfelt concern for this unspeakable loss,” he said. The officer, who was initially placed on administrative leave, was scheduled to be interviewed by the Fort Worth police department’s major case unit on Monday. He had worked for the department for about 18 months.
Body camera footage released by Fort Worth police shows an officer with a flashlight walk around the house. He then appears to catch sight of someone inside, yells, “Put your hands up, show me your hands,” then fires a shot through a window less than a second later. Jefferson died at the scene. “This man murdered someone,” said Adarius Carr, Jefferson’s brother. “He should be arrested.”
A neighbour, James Smith, called the department’s non-emergency line at 2.23am to ask that police check on the house because the front doors had been open for several hours, which he said was “not normal”. The officer is white. Jefferson was black. Lee Merritt, an attorney for the family, suggested that the response to a call to a non-emergency line at 2.23am on Saturday from a concerned neighbour who noticed the doors were open was escalated because the house is in a predominantly African American area of the Texas city.
“This was a wellness call,” Merritt told reporters. “It’s beyond me to begin to understand what kind of police force responds to a wellness call with the equivalent of Swat. There were several officers prowling around the property … as if they were conducting some clandestine abstraction.”
Merritt said the doors were open so a cool breeze would enter the house while Atatiana, who was known as “Tay”, played video games with her eight-year-old nephew, Zion, who was present when she was shot and will receive counselling.
“I ask myself, what would have happened if that little boy went to the window instead of his auntie?” Merritt asked. “He saw her when she fell.”
Jefferson was a biology graduate of Xavier University in New Orleans and reportedly worked in pharmaceutical equipment sales. Family members said she had decided to move into the property in order to look after her ailing mother.
Merritt said a spate of fatal shootings by police in Fort Worth this year – Jefferson was at least the fifth person shot dead by an officer in 2019 – showed federal law enforcement should take over the investigation into the shooting, as well as conduct a review of what he described as systemic problems with the department.
“Why this man is not in handcuffs right now is a source of continued agitation from this family and this community,” he said.
He criticised the department’s decision to release images of a gun police said was recovered from the property. Police have not said if they believe Jefferson was holding the gun when she was shot. Merritt said that the firearm was legally owned and that Jefferson was licensed to carry a handgun.
“We have communicated with the family and shared our serious and heartfelt concern for this unspeakable loss,” Lt Brendon O’Neil, a police spokesman, said on Sunday.
Body camera footage released by police shows an officer with a flashlight walk around the house. He appears to catch sight of someone inside, yells, “Put your hands up, show me your hands,” then fires a shot through a window less than a second later.
Jefferson died at the scene.
“She was a smart, ambitious, kind person with a nurturing spirit,” Ashley Carr said.
Another sister, Amber Carr, said Jefferson had planned to take her sister’s children to the State Fair of Texas last weekend and would help Zion get ready for school.
“He was the one who told me what happened,” she said. Her son is helping her take deep breaths “in the middle of the night when I’m crying”, she said. “He holds me, he hugs me.”
Jefferson was killed less than two weeks after Amber Guyger, a white former officer in nearby Dallas, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the murder of Botham Jean, a black man who was eating ice cream in his apartment when she burst in and shot him.Jefferson was killed less than two weeks after Amber Guyger, a white former officer in nearby Dallas, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the murder of Botham Jean, a black man who was eating ice cream in his apartment when she burst in and shot him.
Guyger claimed she thought she was in her own home and believed he was an intruder. Guyger claimed she thought she was in her own home and believed he was an intruder. Merritt also represents Jean’s family.
Fort Worth police said they released the footage soon after the shooting to provide transparency, but that any “camera footage inside the residence” could not be distributed due to state law. However, the bodycam video released to media included blurred still frames showing a gun inside a bedroom at the home.
It’s unclear if the firearm was found near Jefferson, and police have not said that the officer who shot her thought she had a gun. The police statement said only that officers who entered the residence after the shooting found a firearm, and Lt O’Neil would not answer questions on why police released images of the gun.
A large crowd gathered outside Jefferson’s home on Sunday night for a vigil after earlier demonstrations briefly stopped traffic on part of Interstate 35.
Jefferson was a 2014 graduate of Xavier University in New Orleans with a bachelor’s degree in biology, the university said.
“Our prayers and thoughts are with her family and friends as we gather as a community in prayer,” the college president, Reynold Verret, said in a letter to students and staff. “As we wait for details of this incident to unfold, let us cling to our mission of justice and humanity and seek answers to this tragedy.”
Merritt told the Star-Telegram Jefferson was working in pharmaceutical equipment sales and was considering going back to medical school.
The Fort Worth Police Officers Association issued a statement calling for “a thorough and transparent investigation”.
“The members of the FWPOA love the citizens that we serve, and our thoughts and prayers are with the family of Atatiana Jefferson; our hearts are heavy,” the statement said.
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