Atatiana Jefferson’s family files lawsuit against city of Fort Worth, officer who shot her

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The family of Atatiana Jefferson, the Black woman who was fatally shot through the window of her home, has filed a lawsuit against the city of Fort Worth and Aaron Dean, the former Fort Worth police officer who shot her.

Lawsuit filed by the family of Atatiana Jefferson

According to the complaint filed November 17 in the Northern District of Texas, the conduct of Aaron Dean during “the course and scope of employment caused the untimely death of Atatiana Carr a/k/a Atatiana Jefferson.”

Dean, 34, resigned from the force and was charged with murder and was indicted in December 2019.

How Atatiana Jefferson was killed

Jefferson, 28, was playing video games with her nephew around 2 a.m. on October 12, 2019, when Aaron Dean and another officer arrived at her home.

A concerned neighbor had called the nonemergency police number after noticing the home’s exterior doors were open during late hours. As officers walked around the house in the dark, Jefferson heard a noise in the backyard, pulled out a gun from her purse, and pointed it at the window, police said.

Dean yelled, “Put your hands up! Show me your hands!” before he fired through the window, killing her. Body camera footage showed neither of the officers identified themselves as police.

According to the complaint, Atatiana was at home “not violating any laws of the state and her shooting was without provocation or excuse.”

Deliberately indifferent to protecting

The complaint accuses the city and the former officer of being “deliberately indifferent to protecting Atatiana Carr a/k/a Atatiana Jefferson from harm by systematically failing to provide adequate training and supervision to its officers, uphold Atatiana Carr a/k/a Atatiana Jefferson’s constitutional rights, and providing urgently needed medical care.”

“Defendants acted with high disregard for the rights of others, and their conduct was extreme and unreasonable under the circumstances,” read the complaint.