A Texas Police Officer Shot a Black Woman to Death in Her Own Bedroom
On Saturday in Fort Worth, Texas, 28-year-old Atatiana Jefferson was shot by police through her bedroom window. According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, around 2:00 in the morning Jefferson's neighbor James Smith saw her front door open and lights on, which reportedly struck him as odd since he knew she was at home with her eight-year-old niece—so he called a non-emergency police number. In a statement, the Fort Worth Police Department said that officers were responding to an "open structure" call, and when they arrived they found the door to the house open. The officer then "observed a person standing inside the residence near a window" and fired one shot into the home.
Once inside, the statement mentions that officers reportedly found a firearm along side Jefferson. Texas is an open-carry state, and there's no law against having a gun in your own home. The officers reportedly gave emergency medical care, but, "the individual, a black female, who resides at the residence succumbed to her injuries and was pronounced deceased on the scene. The officer, a white male who has been with the department since April of 2018, has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome [of] the critical police incident investigation."
The Fort Worth Police Department also released the officer's body cam footage, which shows the officer going around the house and through a gate into the yard. Near a dark window, he raises his flashlight, yells, "Put your hands up, show me your hands," and then fires, all within about four seconds.
This latest police shooting comes not even two weeks after a trial in nearby Dallas found Officer Amber Guyger guilty of murdering Botham Jean, a 26-year-old accountant, when Guyger accidentally entered Jean's apartment instead of her own. According to a running total from the Washington Post, so far in 2019 police have shot and killed 689 people.
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Maybe you heard about the Tamir Rice case and wondered: How does a 12-year-old boy with a toy gun on a playground get shot to death on-camera by the police without anyone getting charged? Put another way: How does a small group of government officials make this case disappear without a trial? Here’s how.
Originally Appeared on GQ
