Family seeks answers after police kill Texas woman in her home

FORT WORTH, Texas — A white police officer who killed a black woman inside her Texas home while responding to a neighbor’s call about an open front door “didn’t have time to perceive a threat” before he opened fire, an attorney for the woman’s family said.

“You didn’t hear the officer shout, ‘Gun, gun, gun,’ ” attorney Lee Merritt said after viewing video taken from a Fort Worth officer’s bodycam during Saturday’s shooting of Atatiana Jefferson, 28. “He didn’t have time to perceive a threat. That’s murder.”

Her family told KXAS television that Jefferson was watching her 8-year-old nephew when she was killed early Saturday.

The Fort Worth Police Department said in a statement that officers saw someone near a window inside the home and that one of them drew his duty weapon and fired after “perceiving a threat.” The video released by police shows two officers searching the home from the outside with flashlights before one shouts, “Put your hands up, show me your hands.” One shot is then fired through a window.

“It’s another one of those situations where the people that are supposed to protect us are actually not here to protect us,” said Jefferson’s sister, Amber Carr.

An aunt, Venitta Body, said the family does not understand why Jefferson was killed.

“It’s like from the moment we got the call, it’s been more and more inconceivable and more confusing. And there has nothing been done in order to take away that confusion,” Body said.

Police Lt. Brandon O’Neil said Sunday that the officer, who’s been on the force since April 2018, is on administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation and will be interviewed about the fatal shooting Monday. His name was not released.

At a brief news conference at police headquarters, O’Neil confirmed that the officer did not announce he was police before he fired the fatal shot and that his failure to do so is part of the department’s investigation.

O’Neil also confirmed that Jefferson’s 8-year-old nephew was in the room with Jefferson when she was shot. He said representatives of the police department have spoken with the woman’s family and “shared our serious and heartfelt concern for this unspeakable loss.”