>> A Fort Worth, Texas police officer shot and killed a 28-year-old woman in her home,
a black woman this weekend.
And this all happened after her neighbor called the non-emergency number for a wellness check
on her.
It was supposed to be simple.
Her name is Atatiana Jefferson.
Again, she was only 28 years old.
Fort Worth PD actually released body cam video of the shooting, and as you watch it, we're
about to show you a piece of it.
As you watch it, it's obviously going to be hard to watch for many, but I want you to
remember that it's taken from the angle of the police officer.
Put your hands up, show me your hands.
>> All right, so the officers name is Aaron Dean.
He quit this morning, actually.
And here is Interim Police Chief Ed Kraus on that.
>> My intent was to meet with him today to terminate his employment with the Fort Worth
Police Department, however, the officer tendered his resignation this morning before we met.
Even though he no longer works for the city, we will continue the administrative investigation
as if he did.
The case will be completed and reviewed by the chain of command.
Had the officer not resigned, I would have fired him for violations of several policies
including our use of force policy, our de-escalation policy, and unprofessional conduct.
A statement to that effect will be placed within the investigation to serve as a written
record of that determination.
Additionally, the separation paperwork that is sent to the state licensing agency, the
Texas Commission on Law Enforcement, will reflect that he was dishonorably discharged
from employment with the Fort Worth police department.
Despite his resignation, the officer still faces criminal charges from the major case
investigation.
Additionally, we have also presented a preliminary case to the FBI to review the officer's actions
for possible civil rights violations.
>> Listen, let me give you a little bit more from that interim Police Chief Ed Kraus.
He said, that Dean, the officer was set to be interviewed this morning.
But, he resigned before he answered questions and he has not been cooperative.
Also, the chief was asked what does he say in moments like this when people say hey,
listen, shootings like this, police shootings like this, this is why people, the public,
the community doesn't trust the police.
And he said, I tell them, I get it.
Nobody looked at that video and said there's any doubt that this officer acted inappropriately,
I get it.
I think the strongest, most appropriate reaction that I've ever seen after a police-involved
shooting, from the police department, from the head police officer.
I was surprised and thankful for this type of reaction.
>> Yeah, we've been through this a lot of watching these videos.
It's really kind of painful every single time cuz you know it always ends, it's really rough,
but there are a lot of police mistakes.
I think our standards have sort of been lowered lately.
It's the blue line, we protect all of our people.
But no, to say that, no, this is a violation of many of our policies.
We're going to fire this person had they not resigned, we're gonna try to take responsibility.
You still kind of wonder about the structural issues in policing that lets these sort of
things happen.
But, yeah, you're right, from what we've seen, I've seen some really terrible reactions to
this, I was at least humbled to see something like that.
>> It's obviously so horrifying to see and I think that one of the things that constantly
comes up is that white people need to continue to play their part in calling out police violence.
Most of the police violence we've seen feels like it has either direct racial connotations
or some racial edge to it.
And I think it's important that these issues like systemic police violence are treated
with a all hands on deck kind of approach by society.
And I don't think that a lot of white people feel fear when a wellness check would be called
on them.
So I think the responsibility socially to be involved in issues like this is actually
heightened and we're not always seeing that in society.
I think we need to be seeing that.
>> Yeah, a lot of the reaction that I saw from this was black people cannot call the
police.
You cannot call the police when it's involving a black person.
>> Sure.
>> And it's upsetting because this neighbor call the non-emergency number.
The non-emergency number because I'm thinking if I'm sitting at home and my neighbor across
the street, it's dark outside and their front door is wide open.
I don't know if I was close to them, I would call them or text them or something.
But if it was like an elderly person, I would be worried.
I just wanna like double check, make sure everything's okay.
But then it ended in this.
That's a good reason to call a non-emergency number.
It's a good reason because you wanna make sure that your neighbor is okay, because the
door was open.
Of course, the door was open because it was a cool day and they were just using the open
space to cool the house.
It's nice, exactly.
But, it's horrible and that is now how it should have been handled by the officer, showing
up, gun drawn ready to go.
Like I just don't understand the process of any of this.
Walking up to the house, seeing the door open and not announcing yourself through the door.
It's almost like you wanna sneak catch somebody, I'm gonna go around the back and check the
parameter and get in there.
The door's wide open, announce yourself.
>> Yeah.
>> If they run away, if it's a bad guy and they run away, they run away.
But you can't just shoot people.
>> It goes the structural thing that we're getting at is that this is a wellness check
issue.
We're not really sure there's a danger here but we wanna see this person's okay.
>> Right.
>> We send the people with guns to check and see if people are okay or in these sort of
issues.
Just how and when people are having like mental illness problems are like a sign of distress.
We send cops with guns to handle a person who's like mentally unstable rather than wellness
officers to do that sort of thing.
So, it goes the structural issue of we keep sending people.
It's like solving every problem when you have a hammer every problem looks like a nail.
>> There was an eight-year-old little boy in the house as well at the same time.
It was her eight-year-old nephew.
I think they've been playing video games together hanging out.
His mother spoke to Dallas Morning News reporters saying that, he watched his aunt fall to the
ground after she was shot.
And he spoke a little about how he's been strong for her and it's been the opposite
like she's trying to be that person.
It's just kids are resilient and awesome but she did say he's gonna begin therapy this
week.
And my heart just goes out to that entire family in this tragic moment.
>> And this man who made the wellness check and feels responsible.
Like you are not responsible, you did nothing wrong.
You were trying to care for a neighbor and the idea that he's internalized is that is
horrifying.
We're talking about the issue that is going to take a really or going to require a really
broad approach across society, right?
>> Yeah.
>> We're going to need policy change, we're going to need kind of though process change.
As I said particularly on the part of white Americans, who have that level of privilege
of not fearing the police.
We're gonna need all these different parts of systemic change and we need to get busy
doing that work.
We're seeing constantly this world where people are terrified of either calling the police
or having the police come to them or whatever.
Worried that a situation can constantly escalate, traffic stops.
There were people outside of their home, outside of their sister's home this week who were
arrested for loitering, which is against the law to loiter.
I mean, there's no law against loitering at your own house.
>> Right.
>> And so, we're really going to have to approach these things in a thorough way.
And as I say, I think this is one of the societal issues where white Americans are continually
kind of backing out and laying in the cut and need to be on the front lines