In Fort Worth, Texas, white police officer Aaron Dean has been arrested and charged with murder after he shot and killed a 28-year-old African-American woman named Atatiana Jefferson inside her own home. Officer Dean was responding to a non-emergency call from a neighbor for a wellness check after the neighbor saw Jefferson’s front door was open. Soon after the officers arrived, Dean shouted through Jefferson’s bedroom window to put her hands up, and then immediately opened fire, killing her. He never identified himself as a police officer. Minutes before the shooting, Jefferson had been playing video games with her 8-year-old nephew. This is the family’s attorney, Lee Merritt.
Lee Merritt: “This was a wellness call. It’s beyond me to begin to understand what kind of police force responds to a wellness call with the equivalent of SWAT. This department and their officers violated not only the rights of Tay Jefferson and her family, but they just made commonsense mistakes.”
We’ll speak to attorney Lee Merritt after headlines.