Amber
Carr, left, wipes a tear as her
sister Ashley Carr, center, talks
about their sister, Atatiana
Jefferson, their brother, Adarius
Carr, right and attorney Lee
Merritt, standing, listen during a
press conference at 1910 Pacific on
Monday morning, October 14, 2019 in
downtown Dallas. Atatiana Jefferson,
a 28-year-old black woman, was shot
and killed in her home by a white
Fort Worth police officer during a
welfare check.(Irwin Thompson / DN
Staff Photographer)
Bouquets
of
flowers
and
stuffed
animals
are
piling
up
outside
the Fort
Worth
home
Monday,
Oct. 14,
2019,
where a
28-year-old
black
woman
was shot
to death
by a
white
police
officer.
Members
of the
community
have
brought
tributes
to the
home
where
Atatiana
Jefferson
was
killed
early
Saturday
by an
officer
who was
responding
to a
neighbor's
report
of an
open
door.
(AP
Photo/Jake
Bleiberg)
Family:
Cop who
killed
black
woman
should
be
fired,
charged
By
JAKE
BLEIBERG
apnews.com
The
Fort
Worth
officer
who shot
and
killed
Atatiana
Jefferson
likely
relied
on
police
training
that
overemphasized
the risk
to an
officer’s
life
while
ignoring
basic
patrol
guidelines
every
cop
learns,
law
enforcement
experts
said
Monday.
Jefferson,
28, was
at her
home in
southeast
Fort
Worth
when she
was shot
around
2:30
a.m.
Saturday.
She was
up late
playing
video
games
with her
8-year-old
nephew
when a
neighbor
—
concerned
because
Jefferson’s
door was
open and
the
lights
were on
— called
a
nonemergency
police
number.
When
officer
Aaron
Dean and
his
partner
arrived,
they
went to
the
backyard.
Dean
shot
Jefferson
through
a
bedroom
window.
It
appears
they did
not yell
“police”
or go to
the open
front
door,
according
to the
snippet
of body
camera
footage
released
Saturday
by the
Fort
Worth
Police
Department.
Both
approaches
should
have
been
part of
Dean’s
training
after he
joined
the
department
in 2018,
the
experts
said.
At the
same
time,
Jefferson’s
death
shows
that
overall
police
training
in the
United
States
hasn’t
changed
much,
said
Johnny
Nhan, a
criminal
justice
professor
at Texas
Christian
University
in Fort
Worth.
Police
academies
and
departments
focus
their
initial
and
subsequent
training
on the
fact
that
officers
can be
hurt or
killed
at any
time,
said
Nhan,
who
studies
police
use of
force.
Aaron
Dean was
booked
into the
Tarrant
County
Jail
Monday,
Oct. 14,
2019. He
resigned
from the
Fort
Worth
Police
Department
after he
fatally
shot
Atatiana
Jefferson
in her
home
Oct. 12.
“It
focuses
on the
risk,
officer
safety.
To not
get
killed
and go
home,”
he said.
“Whenever
you have
someone
just out
of the
police
academy,
they
have a
very
heightened
sense of
danger
and
risk.”
Dean
was
arrested
Monday
evening
on a
murder
charge.
Nhan
said
that
although
policing
is
inherently
dangerous,
officers
tend to
go into
situations
feeling
their
lives
are
constantly
in
danger.
He
compared
Jefferson’s
death to
the
September
2018
shooting
of
Botham
Jean in
Dallas.
Former
Dallas
Police
Department
officer
Amber
Guyger
was
sentenced
to 10
years in
prison
earlier
this
month
for
shooting
26-year-old
Jean in
his own
apartment.
Guyger,
who was
off-duty
but
still in
her
Dallas
police
uniform,
told
jurors
that she
confused
his
apartment
with
hers and
thought
Jean was
a
burglar.
She said
she
thought
her life
was in
danger.
Guyger
is white
and Jean
was
black.
Amber
Guyger
was
off-duty
but
still in
her
Dallas
police
uniform
in
September
2018
when she
entered
Botham
Jean's
apartment
and shot
him
while he
watched
football
on TV.
She told
jurors
that she
thought
his
apartment
was her
own and
that she
mistook
Jean for
a
burglar.
She was
sentenced
to 10
years in
prison
earlier
this
month
for
murdering
Jean.
Amber
Guyger
was
off-duty
but
still in
her
Dallas
police
uniform
in
September
2018
when she
entered
Botham
Jean's
apartment
and shot
him
while he
watched
football
on TV.
She told
jurors
that she
thought
his
apartment
was her
own and
that she
mistook
Jean for
a
burglar.
She was
sentenced
to 10
years in
prison
earlier
this
month
for
murdering
Jean.
“That’s
their
default
mentality:
‘Something
is wrong
and I
need to
prepare
for
it,’”
said
Nhan,
who has
written
a book
called
Issues
and
Controversies
in
Policing
Today.
Jefferson
was the
sixth
person
shot and
killed
since
June by
Fort
Worth
officers.
Jefferson
was
black,
and Dean
is
white.
The
Fort
Worth
police
department
is 63%
white,
21%
Hispanic
and 12%
black,
according
to data
released
by the
city in
June.
The city
is more
diverse,
according
to 2018
census
data.
Fort
Worth is
about
40%
white,
35%
Hispanic
and 19%
black.
Law
enforcement
officers
in the
United
States
have
shot and
killed
709
people
in 2019
as of
Monday
afternoon,
according
to a
database
kept by
The
Washington
Post.
Texas
officers
killed
79 (11%)
of those
people
as of
Thursday.
Only
seven
were
women.
Overall,
nine
were
black,
18 were
Hispanic,
21 were
white
and the
race is
unknown
for 31.
Dean
resigned
on
Monday,
said
interim
Police
Chief Ed
Kraus,
who said
he
planned
to fire
the Fort
Worth
officer.
The
chief
said
Dean is
not
cooperating
with the
investigation.
It was
not
clear
whether
Dean had
hired
his own
attorney,
but the
Combined
Law
Enforcement
Associations
of Texas
said in
a
statement
that its
legal
team
will
represent
Dean.
According
to the
Texas
Commission
on Law
Enforcement,
Dean
underwent
training
classes
for
crisis
intervention,
a
refresher
on using
less
lethal
options,
and
courses
on
cultural
diversity
and on
conflict
resolution
in the
past
several
months.
Footage
raises
questions
Craig
Miller,
a former
Dallas
police
deputy
chief
who
testifies
in cases
about
police
use of
force,
said it
appeared
Dean
fired
his
weapon
into the
house
through
a window
very
quickly
after
arriving
and
yelling
for
those
inside
to show
their
hands.
“Those
commands
are
pretty
quick,”
he said.
“They
almost
came at
the same
time as
the
shooting.”
Miller
said
that it
appears
from the
body
camera
footage
that
there
was no
reason
for the
Fort
Worth
officer
to act
so
quickly.
“He
had time
on his
side,”
Miller
said.
“He
could
have
moved
more
slowly
with
this.”
Former
Dallas
police
deputy
chief
Craig
Miller
testified
outside
the
jury's
presence
at Amber
Guyger's
murder
trial.
He is
now a
use of
force
expert.
He has
testified
in civil
cases
but the
judge
did not
allow
his
testimony
before
the jury
in the
criminal
case.
Former
Dallas
police
deputy
chief
Craig
Miller
testified
outside
the
jury's
presence
at Amber
Guyger's
murder
trial.
He is
now a
use of
force
expert.
He has
testified
in civil
cases
but the
judge
did not
allow
his
testimony
before
the jury
in the
criminal
case.(Tom
Fox /
Staff
Photographer)
Officers
usually
yell
police
as
“PO-LICE,”
putting
the
emphasis
on the
first
syllable
so they
are
better
understood,
Miller
said.
Said in
a normal
tone,
“police”
can
sound a
lot like
“please.”
“The
video
tells a
story”
of what
happened
and what
didn’t,
Miller
said,
adding
that
he’d
need to
see what
happened
before
and
after
the
officer
killed
Jefferson
to put
it into
context.
What
came
before
and
after
those
two
minutes
will
also be
of
interest
to both
internal
and
criminal
inquiries,
he said.
Miller
said
Dean is
likely
to say
that he
fired
into the
window
because
he
feared
for his
life.
Using
deadly
force
for that
reason
is a
defense
to a
murder
charge.
If the
case
goes to
trial, a
jury
will
decide
whether
a
“reasonable
officer”
would
have
acted
similarly,
Miller
said.
When
Miller
was with
DPD, he
oversaw
investigations
into
police
shootings
and
typically
went to
the
location
where
they
occurred
along
with his
detectives.
He
recently
consulted
with the
defense
team for
Guyger,
the
Dallas
officer
serving
a prison
sentence
for
killing
Jean.
Miller
said if
he were
investigating
this
shooting,
he would
want to
see the
house
during
daylight
to
compare
with the
lighting
officers
saw that
night.
He’d
also
want to
trace
what
happened
in the
lives of
both
Jefferson
and the
officer
to get a
better
idea of
their
state of
mind
before
the
shooting.
Miller
said
it’s
also
important
to know
what the
officer
knew
about
the
neighborhood
and that
particular
call
before
the
shooting,
as well
as what
other
calls he
had
answered
and if
he’d
been
involved
in prior
shootings.
Types of
response
Despite
the
months
of
training
officers
go
through,
how it
applies
in the
field
depends
on each
scenario.
Former
Dallas
police
Officer
Vana
Hammond
Parham,
who
spoke
about
race and
policing
at the
Texas
Tribune
Festival
last
month,
said she
spent
several
months
under
the
supervision
of a
senior
corporal
when she
was a
rookie
officer.
During
that
time,
she was
evaluated
at
different
phases
on what
was done
well and
what
needed
improvement.
“In
the
world,
things
are
fluid.
They are
not
black
and
white,”
Hammond
Parham
said.
She
said
trainers
always
stressed
the
importance
of
identifying
yourself
as law
enforcement
when
responding
to
calls.
Hammond
Parham
said a
wellness
check
call —
typically
a low
priority
— is
different
than a
call
about a
so-called
“open
structure,”
meaning
a home
or other
building
with
doors
and or
windows
open.
“It’s
usually
someone
calling
saying,
‘Something
doesn’t
seem
right.
Can you
check it
out?'”
she
said.
But
officers
would
approach
an
open-structure
call
differently,
she
said.
The
officer
will
need to
search
the
building
and make
sure
there
are no
threats,
she
said.
It’s not
uncommon
for an
officer
to have
their
weapons
out, but
she said
identification
is very
important
with
those
calls.
“The
first
thing we
do is
announce
ourselves
because
you
don’t
know who
is in
there,”
she
said.
Kraus,
the Fort
Worth
police
chief,
said the
officers
were not
aware
the call
originated
out of
concern
for
Jefferson’s
welfare.
They
were
told it
was an
“open
structure”
call.
The
chief
said it
would be
typical
for
officers
to
announce
themselves
on a
welfare
check,
but not
if they
thought
the
incident
might
involve
a
criminal
situation.
A
broken
system
Officer-involved
police
shootings
frequently
lead to
an
outcry
for
better
training
for
police
officers.
The
National
Black
Police
Association
in a
statement
Monday
criticized
the Fort
Worth
police
department
and
Dean.
The
association
also
called
for law
enforcement
to
improve
its
hiring
and
training
tactics.
“No
innocent
person
should
be shot
by
police
on a
welfare
check
and the
Black
community
needs to
feel at
peace
when the
police
are
called,”
the
statement
said.
After
Jean was
shot and
killed,
his
parents,
Allison
and
Bertrum
Jean,
sued the
city of
Dallas
and
Guyger,
arguing
that
police
officers
need
better
training.
Reynold
Verret,
the
president
of
Xavier
University
of
Louisiana,
a
historically
black
college
from
which
Jefferson
graduated
in 2014
with a
biology
degree,
said in
a
statement
that
there is
“an
urgent
need to
fix a
law
enforcement
system
that is
broken.”
Verret
said
that
while
many
officers
fulfill
their
duty to
their
communities,
the
system
does not
serve
everyone
equally.
“We
should
expect
safety
when we
call on
our
police,
whose
mission
is to
protect
and
serve,”
Verret
said.
“Sadly,
our
fathers
and
mothers
must
caution
daughters
and sons
on their
interactions
with
officers.
Families
in our
communities
hesitate
to call
on their
protectors
out of
fear
they be
killed.
This
should
not be.”