While the rest of the country followed the recent trial of a white Dallas police officer who had shot and killed her unarmed black neighbor inside his apartment, Jefferson had little appetite for the national story playing out some 30 miles away, her family said. She spent her time taking care of a gaggle of cats and dogs and playing video games and basketball with her nephews.
“She was enjoying a life in her home,” said her sister, Amber Carr.
But over the weekend, Jefferson, who is black, became the victim of the latest national police controversy when she was shot to death through her bedroom window by a white officer who was responding to a concerned call from a neighbor. Her sudden death — while playing Xbox with her nephew — stunned a North Texas community still reeling from a similar case in nearby Dallas.
Amid growing community anger and frustration, officials announced Monday that the officer who shot Jefferson had resigned hours before the chief had planned to fire him. Ed Kraus, the interim Fort Worth police chief, said the department was conducting a criminal investigation into the officer’s actions and would have a “substantial update” on the case Tuesday. He said he had reached out to the FBI about the possibility of starting a civil rights investigation.
“I get it,” Kraus said of the widespread outrage that followed the release of body camera video showing that Jefferson had been given no warning that it was a police officer who had crept into her backyard, shined a light into her bedroom window and shouted, “Put your hands up! Show me your hands!” immediately before firing a single fatal shot.
“Nobody looked at that video and said there was any doubt that this officer acted inappropriately,” the chief said.
But the developments Monday did little to appease Jefferson’s family and community leaders, who called for the officer, Aaron Y. Dean, to face criminal charges.
“This man murdered someone,” Jefferson’s brother, Adarius Carr, said at a news conference. “He should be arrested.”
This article originally appeared in
.