Marina Trahan Martinez, Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs and Sarah Mervosh

The officer, Aaron Y. Dean, who is white, resigned earlier on Monday, hours before the police chief had planned to fire him amid the 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.

Police officers were responding to a call from a concerned neighbor when Jefferson, 28, was shot through her bedroom window.

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 FBI about the possibility of starting a civil rights investigation.

“I get it,” Kraus said of the widespread public anger that followed the release of body camera video in the case. It showed that 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.

The unusual and rapid developments, which followed a similar case in nearby Dallas where a black man was shot by an off-duty police officer in his own apartment, highlighted long-standing 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.

“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 Jefferson’s family, said on Monday night. But like many others, he said he was waiting to see how the case was prosecuted.

“Fort Worth has a culture that has allowed this to happen,” he said. “There still needs to be a reckoning.”

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 Fort Worth police used a stun gun on him after 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.

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.

“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.”

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.

On Monday night, he was being held in the Tarrant County jail in lieu of $200,000 bond.

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 Jefferson’s house had been open for several hours.

The authorities said Dean did not identify himself as a police officer before firing a fatal shot at Jefferson through the window.

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.

Kraus said he regretted that the Police Department had released photographs of a gun found on the floor below the window in 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.”

A small group of neighbors and activists who had remained outside Jefferson’s home on Monday night cheered when they learned of 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.

“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.”

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. 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.

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 Guyger was convicted, activists have complained about what they saw as a lenient sentence.

“After watching what happened to Botham Jean and 10 years for taking his life, how excited can we be?” Bell said.

In 2017, after the controversy that followed the arrest of 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 Guyger came to Fort Worth for a vigil for 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.”

This article originally appeared in

Murder Charge for Officer Who Shot a Woman in Her Home

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, resigned earlier Monday, hours before the police chief had planned to fire him amid the 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.

“I get it,” Kraus said of the widespread public anger that followed the release of body camera video in the case. It showed g that 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 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 long-standing 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.

“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 Jefferson’s family, said Monday night. But like many others, he said he was waiting to see how the case was prosecuted.

In interviews Monday, community members recited prior episodes with authorities from memory: In 2009, a man with a history of mental illness died after Fort Worth police used a stun gun on him after his family had called for help.

A small group of neighbors and activists who had remained outside Jefferson’s home Monday night cheered when they learned of 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.

Officer Is Charged With Murder for Killing Woman in Her Home

FORT WORTH, Texas — 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 Monday, the latest development in a case that has sparked national outrage and renewed demands for police accountability.

While the rest of the country followed the recent trial of a white Dallas police officer who had shot and killed her unarmed black neighbor inside his apartment, Jefferson had little appetite for the national story playing out some 30 miles away, her family said. She spent her time taking care of a gaggle of cats and dogs and playing video games and basketball with her nephews.

“She was enjoying a life in her home,” said her sister, Amber Carr.

But over the weekend, Jefferson, who is black, became the victim of the latest national police controversy when she was shot to death through her bedroom window by a white officer who was responding to a concerned call from a neighbor. Her sudden death — while playing Xbox with her nephew — stunned a North Texas community still reeling from a similar case in nearby Dallas.

Amid growing community anger and frustration, officials announced Monday that the officer who shot Jefferson had resigned hours before the chief had planned to fire him. Ed Kraus, the interim Fort Worth police chief, said the department was conducting a criminal investigation into the officer’s actions and would have a “substantial update” on the case Tuesday. He said he had reached out to the FBI about the possibility of starting a civil rights investigation.

“I get it,” Kraus said of the widespread outrage that followed the release of body camera video showing that 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.

But the developments Monday did little to appease Jefferson’s family and community leaders, who called for the officer, Aaron Y. Dean, to face criminal charges.

“This man murdered someone,” Jefferson’s brother, Adarius Carr, said at a news conference. “He should be arrested.”

Officer Faces Criminal Inquiry for Killing Woman in Her Home

FORT WORTH, Texas — Atatiana Jefferson was a homebody. At 28, she had recently moved home to take care of her mother, who was struggling with health issues. She worked out of their modest, blue-paneled house in Fort Worth, selling medical equipment while she studied to apply to medical school.

“She was enjoying a life in her home, where no one would have expected her to be in harm’s way,” said her sister, Amber Carr.

But over the weekend, Jefferson, who is black, became the victim of the latest national police controversy when she was shot to death through her bedroom window by a white officer who was responding to a concerned call from a neighbor. Her sudden death — while playing Xbox with her nephew — stunned a North Texas community still reeling from a similar case in nearby Dallas and ruptured what was an already strained relationship with the Fort Worth Police Department. Since June, officers in Fort Worth have shot and killed six people.

“I get it,” Kraus said of the widespread public outrage that followed the release of body camera video showing that 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.

Dean had been with the Fort Worth Police Department since April 2018, the chief said. He had graduated from the police academy a month earlier, according to documents provided by the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement, a state regulatory agency.

When Jefferson 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.

Jefferson died in her bedroom after officers tried to provide medical assistance, according to the Tarrant County medical examiner’s office.

“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.”

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 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.

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.

Community members 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.

In the controversy that followed the arrest of Craig and her daughters in 2016, 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.

Jefferson was killed weeks after the sentencing of Amber R. Guyger, a white former Dallas police officer who shot her unarmed black neighbor in his apartment last year and was sentenced to 10 years in prison this month. The case 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.”

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.

On Sunday, activists who only earlier this month stood outside the Dallas County courthouse to demand justice in the case against Guyger also came to Fort Worth for a vigil for Jefferson. “I saw many of the same faces,” Suleiman said.

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.

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.

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 Monday.

“She feels helpless,” Carr said.

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.

Kraus said that he had reached out to the FBI about potentially launching a civil rights investigation into the shooting. Dean, who is white, shot and killed Atatiana Jefferson, who is black, through her bedroom window, killing her with a single shot. Her family Monday demanded answer, and said the officer should face criminal charges.

“This man murdered someone,” Jefferson’s brother, Darius Carr, said at a news conference 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.

“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.

Jefferson had been up late playing Xbox with her 8-year-old nephew, who was still in the room when she was shot.

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 backyard, according to body camera video.

One officer shone a light through Jefferson’s bedroom window and, seeing Jefferson, shot her just seconds after he shouted, “Put your hands up! Show me your hands!”

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.

Fort Worth Police Officer Who Shot a Woman in Her Home Has Resigned

FORT WORTH, Texas — 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, authorities said Monday.

Kraus said he had reached out to the FBI about potentially launching a civil rights investigation into the shooting. Dean, who is white, shot and killed Atatiana Jefferson, who is black, through her bedroom window. Her family Monday demanded answers and said the officer should face criminal charges.

“This man murdered someone,” Jefferson’s brother, Darius Carr, said Monday. “He should be arrested.”

He never identified himself as a police officer, according to Lt. Brandon O’Neil, a department spokesman. The department said in an initial statement the officer had perceived “a threat” but did not elaborate.

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Marina Trahan Martinez, Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs and Sarah Mervosh

Articles written by the author

Murder Charge for Officer Who Shot a Woman in Her Home

Officer Is Charged With Murder for Killing Woman in Her Home

Officer Faces Criminal Inquiry for Killing Woman in Her Home

Officer Faces Criminal Inquiry for Killing Woman in Her Home

Fort Worth Police Officer Who Shot a Woman in Her Home Has Resigned

Fort Worth Police Officer Who Shot a Woman in Her Home Has Resigned