Friday, March 29, 2024

Teary Eyed Ft. Worth Police Chief Says Dept. is Reeling Over Fatal Shooting of Atatiana Jefferson

*We’re not sure why, but interim Ft. Worth, TX Police Chief Ed Kraus got real emotional at the department’s press conference today over the Atatiana Jefferson shooting.

Chief Kraus said the force is reeling after a now-former officer shot  Jefferson and killed inside a home where she was babysitting her nephew

As we previously reported, ex-officer Aaron Dean was charged with murder Monday in the fatal shooting of Jefferson, 28, on Saturday at about 2:25 a.m.

As we said, Kraus became emotional during this morning’s news conference, saying that officers in the department of about 1,700 are thanking him for his “quick and decisive” decision to make the arrest. “‘This is going to help heal us,'” he said they have told him.

“The officers are hurting,” Kraus said. “They try hard every day to try to make this city better. They’re out there trying to build these relationships.”

“I likened it to a bunch of ants building an anthill and then somebody comes and washes it away, and they just have to start from scratch and build over,” he said as he teared up and suddenly ended the news conference.

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aaron dean - mugshot
Aaron Dean – mugshot

The chief said he was “deeply sorry for what occurred” and that many other officers have reached out to express the same feeling.

Jefferson’s neighbor had called the department’s nonemergency line early Saturday to request a wellness check when he noticed the front door of the house was ajar.

Body camera footage shows that when police arrived, an officer shined a flashlight through Jefferson’s window and yelled, “Put your hands up — show me your hands.”

Dean, who joined the department in April 2018, fired a single shot at Jefferson seconds later.

Kraus said the officers thought they were responding to something more serious than a welfare check. Still, he said, there was “absolutely no excuse for this incident.”

He’s definitely right about that. One can’t help but notice the Jefferson killing comes less than two weeks after Amber Guyger, a former police officer in nearby Dallas, was convicted of murder for fatally shooting Botham Jean in his home that she said she mistook for her own last year. In both instances, the officer is white and the victim was black.

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Atatiana Jefferson
Atatiana Jefferson

Jefferson was staying at the home with her mother to help her recover from an injury.

After his arrest, Dean was booked into the Tarrant County Correction Center. Since then he has been released on a $200,000 bond.

Dean was initially placed on administrative leave following the shooting before he resigned on Monday. Police said after he fatally shot Jefferson that he was not cooperating with investigators, reports NBC News.

 

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