White cop kills black woman in her house
Neighbour in Texas called for police after seeing door open
A WHITE police officer in Texas fatally shot a black woman inside her home after officers were called to do a welfare check, according to authorities.
Atatiana Koquice Jefferson, 28, of Fort Worth, was killed by an unidentified police officer with the Fort Worth Police Department on Saturday morning. Ms Jefferson’s neighbour, 62year-old James Smith, called the local non-emergency number after he noticed her front door was open and lights were on around 2.25am. He knew Ms Jefferson was supposed to be home with her eight-year-old nephew.
‘I’m shaken. I’m mad. I’m upset. And I feel it’s partly my fault,’ Mr Smith told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
‘If I had never dialled the police department, she’d still be alive.’
Fifteen minutes after authorities arrived, Mr Smith heard a gunshot and watched several officers rush Ms Jefferson’s home.
According to a statement from authorities, officers responded to Mr Smith’s call and arrived to the 1200 block of East Allen Avenue.
In police bodycam footage released by the department, the officer is seen walking around the perimeter of the home and looking through windows.
At one point the officer pulls out a flashlight when he approaches a dark area of the house and appears to gain entrance into her backyard.
Seconds later he looks inside a dark window, draws his gun and yells, ‘put your hands up! Show me your hands!’ He then shoots at the victim almost immediately.
Authorities say the officer perceived a threat and after firing his weapon went inside the home to administer emergency care.
The statement says officers found a firearm, but it was not revealed if Ms Jefferson was anywhere near the weapon at the time of the incident.
Ms Jefferson succumbed to her injuries and died at the scene.
The officer, who began his work with the department in April 2018, has been placed on administrative leave following the incident.
The Fort Worth Police Major Crime unit, Internal Affairs and the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Law Enforcement Incident Team are conducting an investigation into the shooting.
The department ended its statement by expressing its sadness over the violent incident.
‘The Fort Worth Police Department shares the deep concerns of the public and is committed to completing an extremely thorough investigation of this critical police incident to its resolution.’
Mr Smith was heartbroken over Ms Jefferson’s death.
‘It makes you not want to call the police department,’ he told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
‘If you don’t feel safe with the police department, then who do you feel safe with?
‘Do you just ignore crime or ignore something that’s not right? They tell you, “If you see something, say something”...
‘Well, if you do that and it costs somebody to lose their life, it makes you not want to do that. And that’s sad.’
Community members outraged over Ms Jefferson’s sudden death called for action yesterday.
Pastor Michael Bell of the Greater St. Stephen First Church laid bare his criticisms of the police department statements.
Mr Bell said in the video posted to Twitter: ‘We’re tired of police lying. Ain’t no perceived threat unless it’s black folk. Just our presence . . . are we the threat?’
‘Let’s tell it what it is,’ one community member said in a separate video, ‘she was massacred in her own house.
‘Don’t let this rest... where we get all up in arms for about two or three weeks and we go back to business as usual.
‘We are still being murdered by the police. Something has to be done and done right away.’
The investigation is ongoing.
It makes you not want to call police