White Fort Worth police officer shoots and kills 28-year-old black woman in her home

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White Fort Worth police officer shoots and kills 28-year-old black woman in her home: Reports
by KC Wildmoon

October 12, 2019



A Fort Worth police officer has been placed on administrative leave after he shot and killed a black woman through an open window in her bedroom early Saturday morning, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.

The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the dead woman as Atatiana Jefferson, 28. Police did not identify the officer but said he is white and had been with the department since April 2018.

A neighbor said he called the police non-emergency number and requested a welfare check on Jefferson when he saw lights on and the front door open, according to WFAA.

Fort Worth police released the officer’s body camera footage, and it shows two officers checking the home’s perimeter with flashlights. They are not seen to knock or announce themselves.

One officer walks around the home, opens a gate, and enters the backyard. Suddenly, he turns toward a window and shouts: “Put your hands up. Show me your hands!” before firing one shot through the open window.

“Perceiving a threat, the officer drew his duty weapon and fired one shot striking the person inside the residence,” a police statement said. “Officers entered the residence locating the individual and a firearm and began providing emergency medical care.”

Along with the video, police released photos of a gun they said officers found inside the residence. They did not say where the gun was found, whether Jefferson was holding it, or whether the officer saw it before he fired.

Jefferson was pronounced dead at the scene.

James Smith, the neighbor who called the non-emergency number, told the Star-Telegram he felt like “it’s partly my fault.”

“If I had never dialed the police department, she’d still be alive,” he said.

Community leaders and pastors were shaken by the news, coming just days after former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger was sentenced to 10 years in prison for shooting and killing Botham Jean in his home. Several of them held a news conference later in the day and called on the city to hold the officer accountable.

Pastor Michael Bell of the Greater Saint Stephen Baptist Church told the Star-Telegram he couldn’t understand how a person could be perceived as a threat inside her own home.

“Ain’t no ‘perceived threat’ — unless it’s black folk,” he said. “Just our presence — we’re the threat.”


Fort Worth police did not provide further information, citing the investigation.


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White Fort Worth police officer shoots and kills 28-year-old black woman in her home: Reports
 
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Sheesh.

In the days before bodycam, they'd have blamed a drive-by gangbanger who, unfortunately, fled the scene. Baby steps.
 
This makes no sense:

Along with the video, police released photos of a gun they said officers found inside the residence. They did not say where the gun was found, whether Jefferson was holding it, or whether the officer saw it before he fired.

Isn't the camera ON all the time? ... so, they should be able to see in the video where the gun was found?

And why is skin color even relevant?
 
Welfare checks are almost as bad as swatting now.

Nothing inherently wrong with a reasoned welfare check, but announce yourself loudly on arrival, don’t go creeping around someone’s backyard uninvited, and don’t shoot into anyone’s windows unless someone is shooting out.

:emoji_tiger:
 
Police did not identify the officer but said he is white”

How can it be that his race is more relevant than his identity?

:emoji_tiger:
My thoughts exactly, WTF does race have to do with anything? Making this an issue will only arouse the bottom feeders like Sharpton. It should have read "cop shoots woman in her home".
 
I think the bottom line is that if anyone suspects a neighbor, family member or good friend is in some kind of distress then never under any circumstances call the cops for a welfare check otherwise the probability is very high they will get shot.

I can just picture myself in that same situation. I am home alone and suddenly I see lights shining through the window and no one absolutely no one is saying police. I would absolutely assume it was a home invasion about to go down.
 
Welfare check? That did not look like a “welfare check” more like a B and E in progress. Why are they creeping around for a welfare check? I’ve seen more than one welfare check and it always started with load banging on the front door and no one was walking around the property unless the door wasn’t answered.
 
Fail begins with neighbor, concerned about open door? How about calling your neighbor to check on them, or god forbid, walk your ass over and take a look, yell hello and actually observe the situation from a safe distance? JFC, society has been trained to be utterly helpless. Cop completes failure at full retard level. How about announcing yourself? See a gun through a window, I don’t know, maybe step aside out of any possible line of fire and assess the situation like the trained professional you profess to be, not a shoot first pants shitter.
 
I don't know what has changed but in more than 30 years as a firefighter I responded to many "check the welfare" calls and the police officers who also responded never drew their guns.

The same reason I'm retiring the day I'm eligible. It's not that I don't want to do the job any more, it's just getting to the point where they hire almost anyone. With unemployment at record lows, who is signing up for LEO jobs? I started just before the .com bust. I saw a lot of really good people come in when the market crapped the bed. Since then, the number of "I worked at Burger King" applicants has soared. I'm not saying good people don't work at Burger King, but generally not the type that turn into good LEO's. I think we can all stipulate the difference.
 
Police unions need to be dissolved and some new system developed. A cop who screws up this bad deserves at least ten years in prison.

The union has nothing to do with this nitwit's eventual time in prison. Unless they provide him a lawyer, and the law affords him exactly the same protection anyway. The only difference is whether his union dues pay for the lawyer or whether your taxes do; are you sure you still blame the union?

The union DOES have to do with due process before he's fired, which you can agree with or disagree with, but that's the system. Me? I'm good with due process, whether in employment or in court. But then, arbitrary authority is something I'm apparently less comfortable with than you are.
 
I'm with Donut, I think it was an ND

Looks like it to me as well, but that would make it manslaughter. Failure to announce should make it completely irrelevant whether the victim pointed a gun at the officer or not. They had every right to under the circumstances that those officers created.

The criminal justice system must focus on these shootings as potential crimes, and that determines what happens to individual officers. The public will demand that the officer be held accountable. But what they should be more concerned with, IMHO, is whether the tactics and training of the police force will be modified in any way to reduce the likelihood of this happening again. If an officer gets killed, you can bet training and tactics will be affected if there is some lesson to be learned. I don't have much confidence that incidents like this are treated with the same due diligence.
 
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