Texas police officer fatally
shoots woman in her home after welfare check
Oct. 12
A black Texas woman was shot and killed
by a white Fort Worth police officer who was called to the woman's home for a
welfare check, authorities said.
In a statement, the department
said it received a call at 2:25 a.m. reporting an open front door at a
residence. Responding officers searched the perimeter of the house and saw a
person standing inside near the window, according to police.
"Perceiving a threat, the
officer drew his duty weapon and fired one shot, striking the person inside the
residence," the department stated. In body camera video released by
police, two officers search the home from the outside with flashlights before
one shouts, "Put your hands up, show me your hands." One shot is then
fired through a window.
Officers entered the house and
located an individual and a firearm, and began performing emergency medical
care.
Fox 4 Dallas-Fort Worth
identified the woman as 28-year-old Atatiana Jefferson. She succumbed to her
injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. There were no other
injuries.
The officer has been placed on
administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation, according to
police. He has been with the Fort Worth Police Department since April 2018.
The department released bodycam
footage of the incident "to provide transparent and relevant information
to the public as we are allowed within the confines of the" investigation,
it stated. Any video taken inside the house could not be distributed due to
state law.
The neighbor who called 911 about
the open front door told Fox 4 the police officers didn't announce who they
were or knock on the door before searching the outside of the house.
"When I made that
non-emergency call, I didn’t say it was a burglary. I didn’t say it was people
fighting. I didn’t say anything to make them have a gun. All they needed to do
is ring the doorbell,” James Smith said.
“They didn’t park up front, they
parked on the side. They sent SRT, which is the special response team. They
didn’t have a plainclothes officer to knock on that door,” activist and pastor
Kyev Tatum told Fox 4.
The incident comes less than two
weeks after a white former Dallas police officer was sentenced to 10 years in
prison for killing her black neighbor inside his own apartment. Amber Guyger
said during her trial that mistook Botham Jean's apartment for her own, which
was one floor below Jean's.
Guyger, 31, was convicted of
murder for Jean's September 2018 death.
