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Fort Worth Police Officer Who Shot a Woman in Her Home Has Resigned Fort Worth Police Shooting: Officer Who Shot Woman in Her Home Resigns
(about 2 hours later)
FORT WORTH — The Fort Worth police officer who shot and killed a 28-year-old woman as she was playing video games with her nephew in her home resigned only hours before he was going to be fired, the authorities said on Monday. FORT WORTH — The Fort Worth police officer who shot and killed a 28-year-old woman as she was playing a video game with her nephew in her home resigned only hours before he was going to be fired, the authorities said on Monday.
Ed Kraus, the Fort Worth police chief, identified the officer as Aaron Dean and said he had been with the department since April 2018. He said the department had launched a criminal investigation into the shooting, and that he expected a “substantial update” on the case by Tuesday. Ed Kraus, the interim Fort Worth police chief, identified the officer as Aaron Dean and said the department expected to provide a “substantial update” by Tuesday on the criminal investigation it has launched into the shooting.
Mr. Kraus said that he had reached out to the F.B.I. about potentially launching a civil rights investigation into the shooting. Mr. Dean, who is white, shot and killed Atatiana Jefferson, who is black, through her bedroom window, killing her with a single shot. Her family on Monday demanded answers, and said the officer should face criminal charges. Mr. Dean, who was hired in August 2017 and became an officer in April 2018, is not cooperating in the inquiry and has not answered questions from investigators, Mr. Kraus said.
“This man murdered someone,” Ms. Jefferson’s brother, Darius Carr, said at a news conference on Monday. “He should be arrested.” He said that he had also asked the F.B.I. to review the shooting for possible civil rights violations, but it was unclear whether the bureau would take up the case.
Mr. Dean, who is white, shot and killed Atatiana Jefferson, who is black, through her bedroom window, killing her with a single shot, the police said. He and another officer were responding to a report from a neighbor that two doors in the home had been left open for several hours.
“I get it,” Mr. Kraus said of the widespread outrage across the community and around the country after the release of footage from the officer’s body camera showing that Ms. Jefferson had been given no warning that it was a police officer who was walking around her back yard with a flashlight and a gun.
“Nobody looked at that video and said there was any doubt that this officer acted inappropriately,” the chief said. “I get it. We’re trying to train our officers better.”
Ms. Jefferson’s family on Monday said the officer should face criminal charges.
“This man murdered someone,” Ms. Jefferson’s brother, Adarius Carr, said at a news conference on Monday. “He should be arrested.”
The family also demanded that an outside agency investigate the shooting, saying they did not trust the Fort Worth Police Department to conduct an impartial inquiry.The family also demanded that an outside agency investigate the shooting, saying they did not trust the Fort Worth Police Department to conduct an impartial inquiry.
“Why this man is not in handcuffs right now is a source of continued agitation for this family and for this community, and it must be addressed,” said S. Lee Merritt, a lawyer for the family.“Why this man is not in handcuffs right now is a source of continued agitation for this family and for this community, and it must be addressed,” said S. Lee Merritt, a lawyer for the family.
Ms. Jefferson had been up late playing Xbox with her 8-year-old nephew, who was still in the room when she was shot.Ms. Jefferson had been up late playing Xbox with her 8-year-old nephew, who was still in the room when she was shot.
Ms. Jefferson died in her bedroom after officers tried to provide medical assistance, according to the Tarrant County medical examiner’s office. Two police officers drove to her home after the neighbor called a nonemergency line at 2:23 a.m. Saturday and reported the open doors. The officers parked about a block away and quietly crept around outside the house, passing by the two open doors and opening a gate to the back yard, according to the body camera video.
Two police officers drove to her home after her neighbor called a nonemergency line at 2:23 a.m. Saturday and asked for officers to check on the house because its front and side doors had been open for several hours. The officers parked about a block away and quietly crept around outside the house, passing by the two open doors and opening a gate to the back yard, according to body camera video. The officer identified as Mr. Dean shone a light through Ms. Jefferson’s bedroom window and, seeing Ms. Jefferson, shot her just seconds after he shouted, “Put your hands up! Show me your hands! He never identified himself as a police officer, the police said. The department said in an initial statement that the officer had perceived “a threat,” but did not elaborate. Ms. Jefferson died in her bedroom after officers tried to provide medical assistance, according to the Tarrant County medical examiner’s office.
One officer shone a light through Ms. Jefferson’s bedroom window and, seeing Ms. Jefferson, shot her just seconds after he shouted, “Put your hands up! Show me your hands!” Mr. Kraus said he regretted that the Police Department had released photographs of a gun that he said officers found on the floor below the window in Ms. Jefferson’s bedroom after she was killed. He declined to say if she had been holding the handgun, but he and other officials have said she had every right to have a gun in her bedroom.
He never identified himself as a police officer, according to Lt. Brandon O’Neil, a department spokesman. The department said in an initial statement that the officer had perceived “a threat,” but did not elaborate. “We’re homeowners in the state of Texas,” he said. “I can’t imagine most of us — if we thought we had somebody outside our house that shouldn’t be and we had access to a firearm — that we wouldn’t act very similarly to how she acted.”
Mr. Kraus said the only notable entry in Mr. Dean’s personnel file was for a traffic accident.
Marina Trahan Martinez reported from Fort Worth, Texas, and Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs and Sarah Mervosh from New York. Dave Montgomery contributed reporting from Austin, Texas. Mayor Betsy Price apologized on behalf of Fort Worth and repeatedly said the city would seek justice for the killing.
“Atatiana was a beautiful, smart, amazing young woman by all accounts, who was unjustly taken from her family,” the mayor said. “The entire city is in pain. As a mother, a grandmother, a sister an aunt, I can’t imagine anything worse and I’m so sorry.”
Frustration continued to grow in the city on Monday, an anger that community leaders said had developed after decades of abuse by the city’s Police Department, particularly against black residents. Officers have shot and killed six people, of various races, since June.
“We were waiting for years for someone to hear our cries for help about the Fort Worth Police Department,” said the Rev. Kyev Tatum, a pastor at New Mount Rose Missionary Baptist Church in Fort Worth who said he was at Ms. Jefferson’s house on Saturday morning when her body was removed.
“We’re beyond anger,” he said. “It’s trauma now. It’s unaddressed, toxic stress.”
In 2009, a man with a history of mental illness died after his family called the police for help and he was Tasered by the police for nearly a minute. In 2016, a mother called the police to report that a neighbor had choked her young son, and a Fort Worth police officer ended up wrestling her to the ground in an encounter that was widely shared on video.
Mr. Tatum said residents would not be satisfied until the officer who killed Ms. Jefferson was charged. “No ifs, ands or buts about it,” he said. “We’re asking, if the mayor is serious, that they arrest this officer for murder.”
Michael Bell, the senior pastor at Greater St. Stephen First Church in Fort Worth, said the latest shooting exacerbated a history of mistrust with the police and city leadership. “The feeling is that we have to look out for ourselves,” he said. “You can’t even do a nonemergency call, because we may end up dead or assaulted.”
Mayor Price also said Monday that the city was planning to bring in a panel of national experts to conduct a review of the Police Department and its policies. About 500 people gathered on Sunday night at a vigil for Ms. Jefferson near her mother’s home, as Ms. Jefferson’s cat peeked out from behind the house’s blinds. Some protesters split off from the vigil and marched down a road, peacefully confronting police officers who had stayed away from the vigil, but remained nearby.
Ms. Jefferson, who went by Tay, had studied biology at Xavier University of Louisiana and was studying to apply to medical school. Her friends said they thought her compassionate nature would have made her a good doctor. She had returned to Fort Worth from Dallas in the past year to take care of her mother, who was in declining health and is currently in the hospital, her family said.
Amber Carr, an older sister of Ms. Jefferson, said Ms. Jefferson was a loving aunt to her nephews, sometimes being confused for their mother. She would play basketball with them, wash the cars and teach them how to mow the lawn.
Ms. Carr said it was her son who was in the room when Ms. Jefferson was shot, and that she only learned of the shooting from him when she picked him up from a social worker.
Many residents compared the circumstances of Ms. Jefferson’s death to the killing of Botham Shem Jean, a black accountant who was shot to death by a white off-duty police officer in nearby Dallas last year. That officer, Amber Guyger, was fired and convicted of murder earlier this month. She was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
The county medical authorities have not yet listed the official manner and cause of Ms. Jefferson’s death. Roger Metcalf, the chief of identification services, said examiners would conduct additional tests, get videos from the Police Department and speak with officers before making those determinations.
Marina Trahan Martinez reported from Fort Worth, and Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs and Sarah Mervosh from New York. Dave Montgomery contributed reporting from Austin, Texas.