A Fort Worth, Texas, cop shoots an innocent woman, Atatiana Jefferson, through the window of her own home after a neighbor calls in a “wellness check” when he notices her door ajar. When a cascade of societal calamities and individual errors results in the death of an innocent woman, how can we roll back to a time when neighbors knew each other, watched out for each other, talked with each other? And how can we better prepare the officers to whom we grant the power of lethal force on behalf of the state?
Since recording this episode, the Fort Worth police chief has said that Jefferson had armed herself with a gun when she heard “prowlers”, which the chief said was a reasonable reaction to the noises. How can Americans defend themselves against over-zealous law enforcement?
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12 replies on “Almost Inevitable: Ft. Worth Cop Shoots Innocent Woman in Her Home”
Man, this one is rough. A lot of our good family friends are LEOs. One reaction, which I can relate to, was simply: There but for the grace of God… With that an endless stream of “what if” circumstances come to mind but, of course, we just don’t know. Maybe never will know. One thing I do know. That officer’s life will never be the same and neither will the lives of that woman’s family. How sad. We sure find ourselves a long way from Mayberry RFD these days. It can only get worse.
May the peace of God calm the hearts of all involved.
These situations may in part be caused by taking the police off of the streets and putting them in vehicles. They no longer know or are known by the residents in the neighborhoods they protect. I would recommend putting officers on the beat, at least in some neighborhoods for part of their daily tour. I think that bad situational training is also partly responsible for incorrect actions on the part of officers. If officers are not trained or evaluated on a regular basis, the department would not be able to know which officers need training help or psychological help.
Police who treat every call as a night military operation in Iraq need to either be retrained or let go.
Oh My Lord — where to begin…? To fully express my thoughts on this would require hours and pages… neither are available, so I’ll try to keep it short… First off, An unbelievable tragedy for all concerned. Secondly – I’m a little confused. If Ms. Jefferson was “shot and killed” how does the Chief know she got the handgun because she heard a prowler? Did the nephew tell them ?? If this is true, why the “Murder” arrest and not self defense or manslaughter?? Lots of questions still need answered.
I have been “on the job” a very long time and this is the nightmare that pulls you awake in a cold sweat and shaking !! Taking a life when fully justified is difficult enough, but a situation like this scares the hell out of most Officers I know. There are so many issues that may have contributed to this incident and likely contribute to the perception society has taken toward LE in recent years. I would very much like to see a “Full” RA show (maybe extended a little) covering this specific topic. Cover things like 1: reduction of hiring requirements 2: reduction in the ability of Officers in large cities not allowed to do their jobs. and many other issues…. Thanks for the soap box — Just sayin’ —
Karl – lots of good points made. Might I suggest that you seed the discussion with a blog post covering your personal experiences especially with the topics you note towards the end of your post. I think there are many of us here who have relative in LE, but lack firsthand experience. I think this could start a good discussion given a good background to start.
It would also give the opportunity for other member LE to chime in.
Thanks!
Good idea…. might be a few days, but I’ll get to that ASAP… Thanks
Excellent Karl, I have never been an Officer but have very close friends and family who are and have been. Disturbing the turn our society has taken. I hope it is better in your part of the country. I mentioned the ride along in my post. In the early 1970’s a K9 Officer who was my best friends uncle took me out during night shift with him and the dog in downtown Minneapolis. Absolutely, worth while and at that age (early 20’s) I can say it made a deep lasting impression. We are both retired and he is a few years older than me around 80 now and we are still close friends. I have also been out with his son in Dallas. I can not recommend it enough. I used to joke with people, that at the VERY least you get to see the city from the front seat of the squad car.
I CALL SHOTGUN !!! Yep, always better from the front seat !! I’ll throw this out there now so that I can be very clear about my background. ALL of my LE experience has been in a fairly small rural community. Therefore, my “lens” is filtered from that direction. Hopefully I’ll have time to do a blog and cover some of the topics connected with LE today — just sayin’..
This was a horrible incident. Never should have happened, and the officer needs to be dealt with in the system. Lots of investigation needs to happen to understand what happened in the hours leading up to the call and the call itself to understand why an officer would do this. As Bill said, this job takes a very special person to be a LEO, more now days than ever in our history, in my opinion. Most are upstanding and honorable.
That said, how many officers have been ambush murdered since Obama’s beer summit in 2009, 100’s? Add that to the way society and the media scrutinize every move LEO’s make when they have little or no understanding of life and death confrontation. Not an excuse but anyone who does not think these facts of life are on every LEO’s mind, really does not get it.
In my opinion almost everybody in our society that does not understand police work and is determined to be a Monday morning quarterback (for sure ALL POLITICIANS) should be signing up for a ride along. There should be a 6 month waiting list for every department.
Buck – glad you brought up the beer summit. That was one of the first places my head went. Contrast the “outrage” of that incident with what actually went on.
A neighbor reported 2 men breaking into a home. When police arrived there were signs of forced entry. The men in the home could not show any proof that they lived there, so they were arrested. But that incident was made to be a huge error by the officer who actually did everything right.
The note with this episode that the homeowner had a weapon only changes the story slightly IMO, why was the protocol to park around the corner and then prowl around the house. For wellness check? Why not step up to the house and call in through the open door. Or find and call her number. I think the methods and training for police around the country need to be examined.
Agree Ralph, constant training and refining is as important for LEO’s as for military. I also really got to wonder what call went into the police department and what the resulting dispatch call for police was. I know what we are telling us but something is really goofy here. For a “squad” to show up for a welfare check, not announcing themselves, sneaking around the perimeter of the house etc etc. Sounds more like either someone spiked the water cooler with a mixture of LSD and Meth or the call went out for something a LOT more serious than a welfare check. Either way no one needed to die.
Hopefully the investigation will reveal what happened. May be the officer just failed horribly. Remember Justine Damond in Minneapolis?
Buck — you make some good points… Thanks – Karl
After listening to this, I was uncertain whether to give it a thumbs up or down. It is very disturbing when our trusted institutions fail us to the point that they are no longer trusted.