Texas - The family of a 28-year-old black woman who was shot and killed by a white police officer in her Fort Worth home as she played video games with her nephew expressed outrage Monday that the officer has not been arrested or fired.
The Fort Worth Police Department said officers responded about 2:25 a.m. Saturday after a neighbor called a non-emergency line to report the home's front door had been left open. The responding officer fired a shot through a window, killing Atatiana Jefferson.
"Why this man is not in handcuffs is a source of continued agitation for this family and for this community," family attorney Lee Merritt said at a news conference in Dallas on Monday.
Trinity Ford, 4, joins the crowd gathered during a community vigil for Atatiana Jefferson. Picture: AP
The police officer, whose name has not been officially released, should be fired, Merritt said. "That's the least we should expect," he said.
"We are not looking for a slap on the wrist," said community activist Cory Hughes, "... we are demanding that he be charged like the criminal he is."
Merritt said Jefferson stayed up late playing video games with her 8-year-old nephew and had "lost track of time" when they heard noise outside her bedroom window.
"You didn't hear the officer shout, 'Gun, gun, gun,'" Merritt told Dallas
Fort Worth police said in a statement that officers saw someone near a window inside the home and that one of them drew his duty weapon and fired after "perceiving a threat."
In the video, the officer does not identify himself as police.
A single bullet hole was visible in the window of the single-story, freshly painted purple home and floral tributes and stuffed animals piled up in the street outside Jefferson's home.
Carol Harrison-Lafayette protests the police shooting of Atatiana Jefferson during a community vigil for Jefferson. Picture: AP
Fort Worth is about 30 miles (50 kilometers) west of Dallas, where another high-profile police shooting occurred last year. In that case, white Dallas police officer Amber Guyger
According to a demographics report released by the Fort Worth Police Department, nearly two-thirds of its 1,100 officers were white, as of June 30. Just over 20% were Hispanic or Latino and about 10% were black.
The Fort Worth Police Officers Association issued a statement Sunday calling for "a thorough and transparent investigation" into the shooting.
Fort Worth police said it released the bodycam footage soon after the shooting for transparency, but that any "camera footage inside the residence" could not be distributed due to state law.
The bodycam video included blurred still frames showing a gun inside a bedroom. It's unclear if the firearm was found near Jefferson, and police have not said that the officer who shot her thought she was holding a gun. The police statement released Saturday said only that officers who entered the residence after the shooting found a firearm, and Lt. Brandon O'Neil would not answer reporters' questions Sunday on why police released images of the gun.
O'Neil said the officer would meet with investigators from the Fort Worth Police Department on Monday about the shooting. Police previously said the officer, a white man, joined the department in April 2018.
A large crowd gathered outside Jefferson's home Sunday night for a vigil after earlier demonstrations briefly stopped traffic on part of Interstate 35.
Jefferson was a 2014 graduate of Xavier University in New Orleans and earned a bachelor's degree in biology, the university said. Merritt told the Star-Telegram that Jefferson was working in pharmaceutical equipment sales and was considering going back to medical school.