Fort Worth officer fatally shot woman inside her home, police say

A Texas police officer responding to a call was outside a woman’s home when he shot and killed her as she was inside early Saturday, officials said.

Officers responded to a residence in Fort Worth, Texas, regarding an “open structure” call around 2:30 a.m. and found the front door open, police said in a statement.

When officers searched the perimeter of the house, one officer outside noticed a person standing inside, near a window. “Perceiving a threat,” he drew his weapon and fired once into the house at the person, police said.

Officers entered the house, located the injured resident and a firearm, and began providing emergency medical care, police said. The woman was pronounced dead at the scene.

The woman, Atatiana Jefferson, 28, who was black, died in her bedroom at 2:30 a.m., according to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office. The Fort Worth Police Department did not release the officer’s name but disclosed that he was white and had been with the department since April 2018.

James Smith, Jefferson’s neighbor, told WFAA-TV in Dallas that he had called police for a welfare check. He told police that two vehicles were in her driveway but that the door to the house was wide open, which was abnormal, according to call details released by police.

There was “no domestic violence, no arguing, nothing that they should have been concerned with as far as them coming with guns drawn to my neighbor’s house,” Smith said.

Body camera footage released by police showed the officer, shining a flashlight, peering into a window and shouting, “Put your hands up! Show me your hands!” before firing his weapon.

Smith said he was shocked when he heard the gunshot.

“I don’t know what went on in the house, but I know that she wasn’t a threat,” he said.

The officer was placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation.