Woman shot and killed by police officer inside her Texas home

FORT WORTH, Texas — A black woman was fatally shot by a white Fort Worth, Texas, officer inside her home early Saturday after police were called to the residence for a welfare check, authorities said.

The shooting occurred after a neighbor told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that he called the police non-emergency line to report that the front door to the home was open.

In body camera video released by police, two officers search the home from the outside with flashlights before one shouts, “Put your hands up, show me your hands.” One shot is then fired through a window.

Police said in a statement that the woman was pronounced dead at the scene. The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office identified her as 28-year-old Atatiana Jefferson.

The officer does not identify himself as police in the video. Police said the officer, who’s been on the force since April 2018, was placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation.

In the statement, police said the responding officers saw a person near the window inside the home. The officer fired the single shot after “perceiving a threat,” the statement said. The bodycam video also included images of a gun inside the residence, but it’s unclear if the firearm was found near the woman.

Authorities said the bodycam footage was released soon after the shooting to provide transparency, but any video taken inside the house could not be distributed due to state law.

The shooting comes less than two weeks after a white former Dallas police officer was sentenced to 10 years in prison for killing her black neighbor inside his own apartment. Amber Guyger said during her trial that mistook Botham Jean’s apartment for her own, which was one floor below Jean’s.

Guyger, 31, was convicted of murder for Jean’s September 2018 death.