Woman’s killing by police repeats father’s fate
When police opened fire on an Austin woman Sunday, she suffered a fate eerily similar to her father, who authorities in Florida shot and killed 10 years ago.
Both Micah Dsheigh Jester, 26, and her father, Keith Ray Jester, wielded toy guns when police shot them. Micah Jester, a Lubbock native, held a BB gun that closely resembled a semi-automatic pistol, while Keith Jester had a toy gun that looked like a snubbed-nose .38 revolver.
Family members said that while the father and daughter were never close, his killing had always been present in Micah Jester’s mind and had a great impact on her.
“She was obsessed with his death,” her sister Leigha Jester said.
What happened to her father might have been a defining moment for Micah Jester, but family members who spoke Tuesday to the American-Statesman sought to cast her as a woman whose highest priority was to be a good mother to her 10-monthold and 5-year-old daughters.
“Micah was a good, loving person who would do anything for her family,” Leigha Jester said. “She was a good person and loved everyone.”
Family members said the killing of a woman in crisis was unjust, with a family friend calling the officers who shot her “murderers.” The incident left them questioning why nonlethal alternatives weren’t used to subdue her. Six people have died from Austin police gunfire this year.
Austin police responded to the South Austin apartment complex