Ft. Worth Texas cop murders black woman in her own home

CBS Dallas Ft Worth wrote:Fort Worth Police Officer Shoots, Kills Woman Inside Her Own Home

Raegan Scharfetter | CBSDFW.com

FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) — A Fort Worth police officer shot and killed a woman inside her own home early Saturday morning.

Just before 2:30 a.m. Oct. 12, police responded to a welfare call in the 1200 block of E. Allen Avenue, where the front door to a residence was reported open.

When officers arrived, they searched the perimeter of the house and saw a person standing inside the residence, near a window.



In a statement released Saturday afternoon, the Fort Worth Police Department said an officer perceived a threat then drew his weapon. He fired one shot, striking and killing 28-year-old Atatiana Jefferson.

Jefferson was pronounced dead at the scene.

The officer — a white male who has been with FWPD since April 2018 — has been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation. His name has not been released at this time.

Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price has since released the following statement:

Writing a statement like this is tragic and something that should never be necessary. A young woman has lost her life, leaving her family in unbelievable grief. All of Fort Worth must surround Atatiana Jefferson’s family with prayers, love and support.

Chief Kraus and his command staff are acting with immediacy and transparency to conduct a complete and thorough investigation. More details are forthcoming and the Tarrant County District Attorney Law Enforcement Incident Team office will ultimately receive this case.

Ben Reilly wrote:I just would add, growing up in Texas where window screens and screen doors are common, it can be really hard to make out any details of a person standing behind one.

My mother has a screened-in porch that you can hardly see anything through, let alone whether someone was a certain ethnicity.

eddie wrote:

Original Quill wrote:

What facts do you need?  I gave you Hazelwood School Dist. v. United States.  Read the facts of that case, in the opinion of that case...fill in the blanks.  End of...

So...every single case is the same...?

eddie wrote:This is all I'm asking:

Was the gun in the room, with her, and why?
Was the gun in her hand when he shot her?
Why did he shoot so quickly? (maybe the above question is why he shot her so quickly)

In any case, it would appear he may have overreacted, but the full story needs to be heard before we assume anything  

Maddog wrote:A statement from the victims family. They get it.

“Yes he’s going to take his punishment but the system failed him. Whoever senior was with him, who was out with him failed him. Whoever sent him out failed him. The training failed him,” said Adarius Carr, Jefferson’s brother. “There’s a lot that has to get fixed. The city failed him. So, when training is inadequate you have to fix the training.”

Ben Reilly wrote:

Maddog wrote:A statement from the victims family. They get it.

“Yes he’s going to take his punishment but the system failed him. Whoever senior was with him, who was out with him failed him. Whoever sent him out failed him. The training failed him,” said Adarius Carr, Jefferson’s brother. “There’s a lot that has to get fixed. The city failed him. So, when training is inadequate you have to fix the training.”

And the price of that is a human life, and a promising human life to boot.

Associated Press wrote:Fort Worth chief: 'absolutely no excuse' for woman's killing

Associated Press•October 15, 2019

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — The furor Tuesday over the killing of a black woman by a white Fort Worth officer became increasingly about a gun pointed at a bedroom window. But the police chief and activists said the focus was on the wrong gun.

Officer Aaron The Devil You Know was arrested on a murder charge Monday in the slaying of Atatiana Jefferson. Police released an arrest warrant Tuesday quoting the victim's 8-year-old nephew as saying Jefferson had pulled out a gun after hearing suspicious noises behind her house.

Black politicians and others criticized the police and the media for bringing up Jefferson's weapon, angrily accusing the department of trying to deflect blame onto an innocent victim.

"The Fort Worth Police Department is going about the task of providing a defense for this officer," said Lee Merritt, an attorney for the Jefferson family.

Interim Police Chief Ed Kraus himself declared there was "absolutely no excuse" for the killing and said Jefferson behaved as any Texas homeowner would have on hearing a prowler. It wasn't clear from the warrant whether The Devil You Know even saw her weapon through the glass.

The killing early Saturday shocked people across the U.S. and led many black people to wonder once more whether they are no longer safe from police in their homes. Earlier this month, a white former Dallas officer was convicted of murder and sentenced to 10 years in prison for killing a black neighbor in his own apartment. She said she mistook his place for hers and thought he was an intruder.

The Devil You Know, 34, resigned and was arrested Monday for firing a single bullet through a windowpane while investigating a neighbor's report about the front door being left open at Jefferson's home. Jefferson was staying up late, playing video games with her nephew.

Police bodycam video showed The Devil You Know making his way around the side of the house into the backyard in the darkness and opening fire a split second after shouting at the 28-year-old Jefferson to show her hands. He did not identify himself as a police officer.

In the arrest warrant, Jefferson's nephew said his aunt had taken a gun from her purse and pointed it at the window. Over the weekend, the Police Department also stirred anger by releasing images of the gun inside the home.

State Rep. Harold Dutton, a black Democrat from Houston, blamed the media in part.

"Why would you publicize that Ms. Jefferson had a gun in her home?" he asked. "I'm sure the police told you that. But that was her Second Amendment right, and equally as important, it had nothing to do with the incident for which we are here about. Too often, you, the media, have been complicit in throwing dirt on the victim while ignoring the real culprit, current law enforcement."

State Rep. Nicole Collier, a black Democrat from Fort Worth, likewise complained about the tendency to focus on things that could exonerate police officers, "like showing marijuana or showing a handgun when people are rightfully in their own home."

After the deadly shooting last year in Dallas, police reported finding marijuana in the dead man's apartment in what was decried by some as an attempt to smear the victim.

In the Fort Worth case, the arrest warrant notes that the other officer at the scene told authorities she could see only Jefferson's face through the window when The Devil You Know fired. The Devil You Know's own bodycam video showed that the view through the glass was obstructed by the reflection from his flashlight.

Merritt questioned whether The Devil You Know saw a gun at all, noting that the window was covered by blinds, it was dark outside, and The Devil You Know never said "gun" before firing, as officers are trained to do.

"Why do people keep weapons in their homes? Well, maybe, when there's someone prowling around in the back at 2 a.m. in the morning, you may need to arm yourself," Merritt said. "It is only appropriate that Miss Jefferson would have a weapon in that situation."

The gun was "irrelevant," Mayor Betsy Price said Monday.

"Atatiana was in her own home, caring for her 8-year-old nephew. She was a victim," she said.

The Devil You Know resigned without talking to internal affairs investigators, and what he saw and why he opened fire remained unclear. His attorney did not immediately return messages for comment.

The police chief did not directly address the nephew's account of the gun at a news briefing Tuesday. Police spokesman Sgt. Chris Daniels said the information was included in court papers, so a judge would have a clear understanding of the facts of the case.

"Leaving out pertinent information could be seen as misleading; Judges DO NOT like that," Daniels said in an email.

The Devil You Know was held on $200,000 bond and released after posting bail less than four hours after his arrest. The police chief said he would have been fired if he hadn't quit first. Police also referred the case to the FBI for possible federal civil rights charges.

Apparently close to tears, Kraus pleaded with the city of nearly 900,000 not to allow the killing to reflect badly on the entire department.

"The officers are hurting," he said. "They try hard every day to try to make this city better." He added: "I likened it to a bunch of ants building an ant hill, and then somebody comes with a hose and washes it away. And they just have to start from scratch."

Merritt said Fort Worth needs to change its "brutal culture of policing," and Price, the mayor, has called for a top-to-bottom review of the department.

Dozens of people crowded Fort Worth's City Council chamber and hundreds more shouted outside to call for justice for Jefferson.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports about 60 people signed up to speak to the council at its Tuesday night meeting. Once the chamber's capacity was reached, about 200 others who could not make it inside shouted bitter protests outside City Hall to Fort Worth police and political leaders.

Of the nine officer-involved shootings so far this year in Fort Worth, five targeted African Americans and six resulted in death, according to department data.

Nearly two-thirds of the department's 1,100 officers are white, just over 20% are Hispanic, and about 10% are black. The city is about 40% white, 35% Hispanic and 19% black.

'Wolfie wrote:

The only person I have seen on here defending that cop has been Tommy Monk...

Then again,  Tommy does have a history of often jumping to the defence of incompetent, useless and/or crooked killer cops, while attempting to demonize, delegitimise and disenfrancise their innocent victims..

Especially where those victims are 'black', coloured or 'foreigners'.

nicko wrote:As would quill !