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Fort Worth Police Shooting: Officer Is Charged With Murder for Killing Woman in Her Home Fort Worth Police Shooting: Officer Is Charged With Murder for Killing Woman in Her Home
(about 2 hours later)
FORT WORTH — A former Fort Worth police officer was arrested and charged with murder on Monday, authorities said, after he fatally shot a woman while she was at home playing video games this weekend in a case that sparked outrage and renewed demands for police accountability. FORT WORTH — A former Fort Worth police officer who fatally shot a woman while she was at home playing video games over the weekend was arrested and charged with murder on Monday, the latest development in a case that has sparked national outrage and renewed demands for police accountability.
The officer, Aaron Y. Dean, who is white, had resigned earlier on Monday, hours before the police chief had planned to fire him amid the community’s growing anger and frustration that the woman, Atatiana Jefferson, had become the latest black person to be killed by the police while in the safety of her home. The officer, Aaron Y. Dean, who is white, resigned earlier on Monday, hours before the police chief had planned to fire him, amid growing anger and frustration in the community that the woman, Atatiana Jefferson, had become yet another black person killed by the police, this time in the safety of her own home.
Ed Kraus, the interim chief of the Fort Worth Police Department, said in an afternoon news conference that it was conducting a criminal investigation into the officer’s actions and that he had reached out to the F.B.I. about the possibility of starting a civil rights investigation. Police officers were responding to a call from a concerned neighbor when Ms. Jefferson, 28, was shot through her bedroom window.
“I get it,” Chief Kraus said of the widespread public outrage that followed the release of body camera video showing that Ms. Jefferson had been given no warning that it was a police officer who had crept into her backyard, shined a light into her bedroom window and shouted, “Put your hands up! Show me your hands!” immediately before firing a single fatal shot. The case resulted in a rare murder charge against a police officer only hours after the interim Fort Worth police chief, Ed Kraus, announced that the department was conducting a criminal investigation into the officer’s actions and had reached out to the F.B.I. about the possibility of starting a civil rights investigation.
“I get it,” Chief Kraus said of the widespread public anger that followed the release of body camera video in the case. It showed that Ms. Jefferson had been given no warning that it was a police officer who had crept into her backyard, shined a light into her bedroom window and shouted, “Put your hands up! Show me your hands!” immediately before firing a single fatal shot.
“Nobody looked at that video and said there was any doubt that this officer acted inappropriately,” the chief said.“Nobody looked at that video and said there was any doubt that this officer acted inappropriately,” the chief said.
S. Lee Merritt, a civil rights lawyer who is representing Ms. Jefferson’s family, said that the arrest came in response to national pressure over the case, but that broader cultural change was still needed in Fort Worth, where black residents have long complained of abuses at the hands of the police. The unusual and rapid developments, which followed a similar case in nearby Dallas where a black man had been shot by an off-duty police officer in his own apartment, highlighted longstanding tensions in Fort Worth, where residents have frequently complained about abuse at the hands of the police. Since June, Fort Worth officers have shot and killed six people.
Since June, there have been six fatal shootings by police officers in Fort Worth. “A murder charge and an arrest is a good start — it’s more than we are used to seeing,” S. Lee Merritt, a civil rights lawyer who is representing Ms. Jefferson’s family, said on Monday night. But like many others, he said he was waiting to see how the case was prosecuted.
“A murder charge and an arrest is a good start — it’s more than we are used to seeing,” Mr. Merritt said. “The family is withholding their emotion until this officer is prosecuted properly.” “Fort Worth has a culture that has allowed this to happen,” he said. “There still needs to be a reckoning.”
Mr. Dean was being held in the Tarrant County jail on Monday night in lieu of $200,000 bond. He had been with the Fort Worth Police Department since April 2018, the chief said, and had graduated from the police academy a month earlier, according to documents provided by the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement, a state regulatory agency. In interviews on Monday, community members recited prior episodes with authorities from memory: In 2009, a man with a history of mental illness died after he was Tasered by the Fort Worth police, which his family had called for help. In 2016, a mother called the police to report that a neighbor had choked her young son for littering, but the mother herself ended up getting arrested. In the video-recorded encounter, the mother, Jacqueline Craig, was forced to the ground and placed in handcuffs; her teenage daughters were also detained.
A small group of neighbors and activists had remained outside Ms. Jefferson’s apartment after television crews departed on Monday evening, and when they learned of Mr. Dean’s arrest, they cheered. Some of them gathered to pray. Community activists also cited the seven police shootings since early summer, six of them fatal, including the killing of a man who the police thought was carrying a rifle but was actually pointing a flashlight at officers after barricading himself inside a house.
The Rev. Kyev Tatum, a pastor at New Mount Rose Missionary Baptist Church in Fort Worth, said years of sustained pressure on Fort Worth had paid off in the arrest of Mr. Dean. The murder charge came weeks after the trial of Amber R. Guyger, a white former Dallas police officer who had shot and killed her unarmed black neighbor inside his apartment. “We’re beyond anger,” said the Rev. Kyev Tatum, a pastor at New Mount Rose Missionary Baptist Church in Fort Worth. “It’s trauma now. It’s unaddressed, toxic stress.”
Mr. Tatum said Ms. Guyger’s conviction — she was sentenced to 10 years in prison — may have emboldened leaders of the nearby city to act quickly. He said that case also brought a lesson that activists must keep pressing forward to ensure justice for Ms. Jefferson. Mr. Dean had been with the Fort Worth Police Department since April 2018, after graduating from the police academy a month earlier, according to documents provided by the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement, a state regulatory agency.
“We have to remain vigilant because in Botham Jean’s case, they got a conviction, but she got 10 years, two hugs and a Bible,” he said, referring to the victim. On Monday night, he was being held in the Tarrant County jail in lieu of $200,000 bond.
When Ms. Jefferson, 28, was killed, she had been up late playing video games with her 8-year-old nephew. Her house drew the attention of a neighbor, who called a nonemergency line at 2:23 a.m. Saturday because he was concerned that its front and side doors had been open for several hours. Ms. Jefferson had recently moved home with her mother, who was in declining health, and was selling medical equipment while she studied to enter medical school. She had been playing video games with her 8-year-old nephew in the early hours of Saturday morning when a neighbor called a police nonemergency line at 2:23 a.m., saying he was concerned that the front and side doors of Ms. Jefferson’s house had been open for several hours.
Ms. Jefferson died in her bedroom after officers tried to provide medical assistance, according to the Tarrant County medical examiner’s office. The authorities said Mr. Dean did not identify himself as a police officer before firing a fatal shot at Ms. Jefferson through the window.
“I can’t stop crying,” said Lillie Biggins, a longtime community leader in Fort Worth who had recently served on a race and culture task force for the city. “My heart is absolutely crushed.” Ms. Jefferson died in her bedroom after officers tried to provide medical assistance, according to the Tarrant County medical examiner’s office. Her nephew was in the room when the shooting occurred, the authorities said.
Michael Bell, the senior pastor at Greater St. Stephen First Church in Fort Worth, was among those who criticized the officers for not knocking on the door or otherwise identifying themselves to give Ms. Jefferson a chance to respond.
“They approached it as if it were a tactical exercise, even though it was a welfare check,” he said, adding that the latest shooting only added to distrust of the police in a community that had experienced a “cumulative effect” from multiple episodes of police force.
In 2009, a man with a history of mental illness died after he was Tasered by the Fort Worth police, which his family had called for help.
Several years later, in 2016, a mother called the police to report that a neighbor had choked her young son for littering, but the mother herself ended up getting arrested. In an encounter that was captured on video and widely shared, the mother, Jacqueline Craig, was forced to the ground and placed in handcuffs; her teenage daughters were also arrested.
In the controversy that followed those arrests, the City Council appointed a task force to examine issues of race and culture in Fort Worth. The task force presented a series of recommendations last year, including an avenue to involve citizens in oversight of the police department and recommendations to diversify the police force.
The City Council in September authorized several of the task force recommendations, including a police monitor position, a police cadet program and the creation of a diversity and inclusion program.
The case involving Ms. Guyger was one of a handful of police shootings to go to trial in the Dallas-Fort Worth area in recent years. In another case, a police officer shot an unarmed black 15-year-old as he sat in the passenger seat of a car; the officer was sentenced to 15 years in prison last year.
“Between these shootings and the trials of all of these different things, we literally have not had a chance to recover,” said Omar Suleiman, an imam and activist in the Dallas area. “There is just this deep anger and hurt in the streets that you can’t be safe in your apartment, you can’t be safe in your home, you can’t be safe in your car.”
Chief Kraus said he regretted that the Police Department had released photographs of a gun found on the floor below the window in Ms. Jefferson’s bedroom after she was killed — though he declined to say if she was holding it, or if the officer saw it before he shot her.Chief Kraus said he regretted that the Police Department had released photographs of a gun found on the floor below the window in Ms. Jefferson’s bedroom after she was killed — though he declined to say if she was holding it, or if the officer saw it before he shot her.
She had every right to have a gun in her bedroom, the chief said. “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.”She had every right to have a gun in her bedroom, the chief said. “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.”
Fort Worth is at least a 30-minute drive from Dallas and very much its own community, with its own local politics, cultural identity and history of relations with the police. But the two cities — flashy Dallas and down-home Fort Worth — are the anchors of a sprawling metroplex, where people commute from the smaller suburbs for work and meet in the middle for Dallas Cowboys games. A small group of neighbors and activists who had remained outside Ms. Jefferson’s home on Monday night cheered when they learned of Mr. Dean’s arrest. Some of them gathered to pray. But others remained skeptical, citing what they saw as a historical reluctance to prosecute and fairly punish police officers.
On Sunday, activists who earlier this month stood outside the Dallas County courthouse to demand justice in the case against Ms. Guyger also came to Fort Worth for a vigil for Ms. Jefferson. “I saw many of the same faces,” Mr. Suleiman said. “You know what, this is Fort Worth,” said Michael Bell, the senior pastor of the Greater St. Stephen First Church in Fort Worth, who said he was among those waiting to see how the case was prosecuted. “Our community has experienced so much. I don’t want to go overboard and start any kind of celebration because I don’t know how it’s going to turn out.”
Ms. Jefferson, who went by Tay, graduated in 2014 from Xavier University of Louisiana, the country’s only black Catholic college, with a degree in biology. After living in the Dallas area, she recently moved to Fort Worth to help care for her mother and her 8-year-old nephew, whom she had been showing how to mow and weed-whack the yard. He was in the room when his aunt was killed. Ms. Jefferson was killed less than two weeks after the conclusion of the case in Dallas, in which Amber R. Guyger, a white former police officer, was convicted of murder. Ms. Guyger shot her unarmed black neighbor, Botham Shem Jean, in his apartment last year, claiming she thought the apartment was her own. The former officer was sentenced to 10 years in prison this month after a highly publicized trial.
On Monday, the boy was playing along a sidewalk in downtown Dallas while his family held a news conference nearby. He wore a long-sleeve shirt with a BMX biker graphic and bluejeans, flexing his knowledge of sports cars, including a Corvette. That case took place in a neighboring county under a different district attorney. Still, many who had been following it could not help but draw comparisons. Though Ms. Guyger was convicted, activists have complained about what they saw as a lenient sentence.
Ms. Jefferson’s mother, Yolanda, was missing from the family’s news conference. She had been in a hospital being treated for health issues when the police told her that an officer had shot her daughter, and that is where she remained on Monday. “After watching what happened to Botham Jean and 10 years for taking his life, how excited can we be?” Dr. Bell said.
“She feels helpless,” Ms. Carr said. In 2017, after the controversy that followed the arrest of Ms. Craig and her daughters, the Fort Worth City Council appointed a task force to examine issues of race and culture. The task force presented a series of recommendations last year, including an avenue to involve citizens in oversight of the Police Department and recommendations to diversify the police force.
The City Council in September took action on several of the task force recommendations, including creating a police monitor position, setting up a police cadet program and beginning a diversity and inclusion program.
Over the weekend, activists who earlier this month stood outside the Dallas County courthouse to demand justice in the case against Ms. Guyger came to Fort Worth for a vigil for Ms. Jefferson.
“I saw many of the same faces,” said Omar Suleiman, an imam and activist in the Dallas area.
He said the latest shooting contributed to a feeling of exhaustion in the North Texas community, which experienced trauma anew with each new shooting, each new arrest and each new trial.
“We literally have not had a chance to recover,” he said. “There is just this deep anger and hurt in the streets that you can’t be safe in your apartment, you can’t be safe in your home, you can’t be safe in your car.”
Marina Trahan Martinez reported from Fort Worth, and Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs and Sarah Mervosh from New York. Dave Montgomery contributed reporting from Austin, Texas.Marina Trahan Martinez reported from Fort Worth, and Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs and Sarah Mervosh from New York. Dave Montgomery contributed reporting from Austin, Texas.