Atatiana Jefferson’s death at the hands of Fort Worth police in the name of a “welfare check” is the latest in a far-too long list of heartbreaks.
Early last Saturday morning, Atatiana Jefferson, 28, was killed by a Fort Worth police officer while home playing a video game with her 8-year-old nephew.
Police shot her through the window, a split second after shouting at her to put her hands up, never identifying themselves.
Babysitting while Black?
The police were called to her house in order to do a wellness check.
A wellness check!
Her 8-year-old nephew,
whom she was babysitting,
witnessed the murder.
According to Vice News, the child told police that when Jefferson saw lights being shined into her window, she grabbed the gun she was licensed to carry to go out and defend herself and her loved one.
Now, none of this crap is new to me. I’m 61 years old, and I have lived through businessman and community activist Arthur Miller being killed by Brooklyn police back in 1978 before many of you were born.
I have lived through the 1999 New York Police Department murder of Amadou Diallo.
I have lived through the murder of our young children—Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice—and Philando Castile, who like Jefferson was exercising his Second Amendment right to carry a gun when he was shot.
I screamed, marched, carried signs and wrote each time.
I come from a family deeply involved in the Black Liberation Movement so I’ve never been one to sit in silence while my community is being attacked.
But as I’ve gotten older—and have also suffered first from a brain tumor, and now Multiple Sclerosis—seeing members of my community killed by police or their surrogates has left me so very, very, very sad and drained.
As a warrior from birth, I continue to do what I can. Although I’m no longer out in the streets practicing daily journalism and informing the public about the injustices, I still try to highlight these things by connecting families with other journalists in high profile media outlets in order to help them get the word out.
So, neurological issues aside, I’ve always done what I can, and I think that is what has always helped me emotionally deal with all of the injustice. “At least I’m not just sitting around doing nothing,” I force my brain to reason.
That might take care of my brain, but my poor heart is hurting bad.
According to doctors, my heart is, physically, in great condition.
Yet every time—every single time —I hear about another injustice heaped upon my community by those who we are told are supposed to protect us I become so sad that my heart starts throbbing with excruciating pain.
It feels like a little sliver of the outer layer is stripped off with every murder.
The Fort Worth Police Department has torn away yet another piece.
A neighbor called the police, asking for a wellness check on Jefferson’s residence, when he noticed that her front door was wide-open in the middle of the night.
That call for a wellness check ended with Atatiana Jefferson’s death.
When the police arrived they drew their guns and started prowling around the exterior of the house.
Hearing people in the bushes Jefferson retrieved her gun—which she was licensed to own —and went to see what was going on.
One of the officers saw her through the window, ordered her to freeze, then shot her less than two seconds later.
Less than two seconds.
That’s not enough time for her brain to even process the command, more or less react/respond to it. She likely died not knowing what the hell was going on.
It makes me cry just thinking about it.
This woman did nothing wrong, but sit in her house playing video games with her nephew… likely not even knowing that the damn front door was open.
Remember, the police never announced their presence.
Trying to justify the officer’s actions, two days later, the Fort Worth police held a press conference saying that the officer “perceived a threat.”
It would seem that “perceived as a threat” is the new phrase for “feared for his life,” the usual excuse for a police officer killing an armed Black.
Hey—oh, and in an attempt to further muddy the waters the Fort Worth police released pictures of Jefferson’s weapon without revealing the fact that she was a licensed gun owner. They found a way to assassinate her character without using words.
Police Chief Ed Kraus said the police shouldn’t have released a picture of the gun found in Jefferson’s home.
“In hindsight, it was a bad thing to do. I think that it was to show a weapon was involved, however, we are homeowners in the state of Texas,” he said.
Does this make me feel better?
Nope!
My heart is breaking with sadness because of the way this woman was killed and how the police originally tried to spin it.
Dean was arrested and charged with murder on Monday, shortly after he resigned from the police force. He had been notified by his superiors that he was being suspended with intent to dismiss. He likely wanted to beat them to the punch.
But before anyone tries to tell me that the officer, Aaron Dean, made an honest mistake in this case, don’t. Just don’t.
I can only hope my sadness will quickly EVOLVE into anger.
I better function as an Angry-Ass Black Woman than the heart-broken woman who cannot understand man’s inhumanity to man.