*Sacramento Kings star Harrison Barnes has stepped up to pay for the funeral of Atatiana Jefferson, the Black woman who was shot and killed Saturday morning by a white Fort Worth police officer while she was in her own home.
Before he joined the Kings, Barnes spent two-and-a-half years in Dallas as a member of the Mavericks, so he still feels a connection to his previous home city, as evident by the generous gesture Barnes and his wife made to Jefferson’s family.
Jefferson had been looking after her eight-year-old nephew when the officer, Aaron Dean, arrived at her open-door home and opened fire without announcing he was a policeman. 28-year-old Jefferson was shot and killed on the scene, and Dean since has resigned and been charged with murder. He’s currently out on $200,000 bail.
OTHER NEWS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED: Teary Eyed Ft. Worth Police Chief Says Dept. is Reeling Over Fatal Shooting of Atatiana Jefferson
BREAKING: The police officer that killed Atatiana Jefferson in her home has been identified as Aaron Dean. He has since resigned from his post. pic.twitter.com/yilMAQUjbv
— Mad World (@MadddWWWorld) October 14, 2019
“The biggest thing is, anytime someone has to go through that, the last thing you want to have to worry about is trying to come up with the money for a funeral,” Barnes explained Thursday. “It’s about the family, it’s about everything they’re going through. Our prayers are obviously with them, and it was a gesture my wife and I wanted to do for them.
“It was unfortunate. It should never happen,” Barnes continued. “Just in general, gun violence in Dallas, recently. Andre Emmett, a guy that I played pickup basketball with for two-and-a-half straight summers — another unfortunate incident. So when you see these type of situations continue to occur, you know that change needs to happen.”
“I think that any time you come to a community, whether it’s Sacramento, whether it’s Dallas, whether it’s Oakland, Chapel Hill or Ames, you always have a piece of that community that’s with you and you always want to try to give back.
Meanwhile, according to sources, the information relayed to dispatch from the neighbor requesting a welfare check on Jefferson did not match what was given to responding officers, blavity.com reports.
Authorities are now looking into what information was received by former officer Aaron Dean and his partner, which ultimately led to the killing of Jefferson.
When Jefferson’s neighbor called the non-emergency number to request a wellness check on Atatiana, he never expected the responding officers would kill her.
“The information came from the neighbor to the call-takers and while it was relayed to the dispatch, it was determined to be an open structure call,” Fort Worth Interim Police Chief Ed Kraus said to reporters.
CNN reports that a welfare check typically involves a medical emergency, while an “open structure” or “open door” call, directly implies a burglary.
Body camera footage released by the Fort Worth Police Department shows Dean shining a flashlight into the back side home as Atatiana approached the bedroom window.
“Put your hands up! Show me your hands!” he shouts through the window with his gun drawn.
A split-second later, the officer fired a single shot, killing Atatiana in front of her nephew.
WATCH:
.@SacramentoKings star Harrison Barnes and his wife will pay for the funeral of Atatiana Jefferson, the woman who was shot and killed by a police officer while she was in her own home.
(via @James_HamNBCS)pic.twitter.com/gkGZk8vf3y
— Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports) October 18, 2019
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