The cop did not identify himself as an officer and yelled “Put your hands up! Show me your hands!” before firing his weapon once through a window.
A 28-year-old black woman was shot and killed in her Texas home by police early Saturday morning.
Officers showed up at Atatiana Jefferson’s Fort Worth home about 2:30 a.m. after a neighbor said he called a non-emergency police number because he noticed her doors were open and lights were on. According to CNN, James Smith said he knew Jefferson was in the house with her 8-year-old nephew.
"I called my police department for a welfare check," Smith said. "No domestic violence, no arguing, nothing that they should have been concerned about as far as them coming with guns drawn to my neighbor’s house,” Smith told WFAA.
When Fort Worth Police Department cops showed up, they searched the perimeter of Jefferson’s home. Officers said they saw someone standing inside the home near a window.
Police released edited body cam footage of the incident a short time later. An officer can be heard yelling, “Put your hands up! Show me your hands!” through the window just before firing his weapon once. In the video, he does not identify himself as an officer.
Jefferson was pronounced dead at the scene.
“Perceiving a threat, the officer drew his duty weapon and fired one shot striking the person inside the residence,” the department said in a statement. “Officers entered the residence locating the individual and a firearm and began providing emergency medical care,” it says in part.
Authorities did not identify the officer who fatally shot Jefferson but said he is white and joined the department in April 2018. He has been placed on administrative leave while the department investigates.
Smith said he feels like he is somewhat responsible for Jefferson’s death.
"I'm shaken. I'm mad. I'm upset. And I feel it's partly my fault," he told WFAA. "If I had never dialed the police department, she'd still be alive."
InsideEdition.com reached out to the Fort Worth Police Department for comment.
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