On Oct. 12, 28-year-old Atatiana Jefferson (pictured here with her nephew) was killed in her own home by a Ft. Worth police officer responding to an “open structure” call.
She was dead for two days before I realized that I knew her.
The newspapers used her full name, Atatiana Jefferson, but ten years ago at Xavier University of Louisiana, in my class, she went by Tay.
Over nearly two decades of teaching, I have taught thousands of students. All I remember about Tay is her nickname, her glasses and her smile.
She graduated pre-med – with plans to enter medical school – but then went home to Texas to take care of her sick mother. She was caring for her mom, working in pharmaceutical sales and saving for med school. She was babysitting her nephew when she died.
On Oct. 12, a Ft. Worth police officer shot Tay to death in her own home, in her own bedroom, while responding to an “open structure” call.
She was 28 years old.
The front door was open and a neighbor was concerned, so he dialed the non-emergency number, expecting officers to do a welfare check.
Two patrol units responded. It was around 2:30 in the morning. Lights were on. The front door was open. The officers crept around the side of the house and entered the backyard.
Tay was in her bedroom, playing video games with her eight-year-old nephew.
According to the boy, Tay heard noises outside, got scared and pointed her handgun toward the window.
When one officer spotted Tay, he shouted, “Put your hands up! Show me your hands!”
Less than a second later, he shot her through her bedroom window, shot her in the head, shot her dead within feet of her nephew.
Neither officer announced himself prior to the shooting. Tay’s handgun was legally registered. She had a concealed carry permit. She was in her own home.
The officer resigned, then was arrested on a charge of first-degree murder. Had he not resigned, the officer would have been fired for what interim Police Chief Ed Kraus referred to as “violations of several policies, including our use of force policy, our de-escalation policy and unprofessional conduct.” Well, yes.
The officer bonded out of jail the same evening he was charged.
I hope the officer is convicted. I hope that this, finally, is the case that spurs some kind of reform, that officers receive the improved training they need, that some kind of national training standards are implemented. I do not pretend to know the answers, but I know that something has to change.
I remind myself of what MLK said: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
But I do not believe that the arc toward justice is inevitable; I believe that we have to do the bending ourselves.
A few years before being killed, Atatiana Jefferson said, “Crimes cannot go unpunished. It makes a mockery of the U.S. justice system if people feel comfortable enough to commit crime.”
I hope that she was right.
Robbi Pounds is the staff writer for The Graham Star. She can be reached by phone, 479-3383 or by email, rpounds@grahamstar.com.