According to police records, the incident is being investigated as a terrorist threat.
By Isabella Volmert and Aria Jones
Saturday morning, a casket bearing the names of Atatiana Jefferson and other people shot by Fort Worth police was left outside Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker’s home. Photos on Facebook showed a grey coffin with red paint dripping down the sides and the word “ATATIANA” painted on top. Jefferson, a Black man, was murdered in 2019 by then-Officer Aaron Dean, who is now on trial for murder.
On the casket’s side, a red target was painted. David Collie, who was paralyzed after being shot in the back by an off-duty officer in 2016 and died this year, and Dacion Steptoe, who died in a gunfight between police and robbery suspects in 2018 that also killed Fort Worth Officer Garrett Hull, were also named on the list. Collie and Steptoe were both black.
Officers responded to the mayor’s residence in the Ridglea North neighbourhood near Interstate 30 and Camp Bowie Boulevard around 8:30 a.m., according to a police report. The report says the incident is being investigated as a terroristic threat.
Officers responded to a disturbance call at the home, but no further information could be released due to the ongoing investigation, according to Fort Worth police. A request for comment from the mayor’s office was forwarded to the police department.
Dean’s assassination of Jefferson sparked outrage across the country. Dean, now 38, was one of two officers who responded to Jefferson’s home early on October 12, 2019, after a neighbor called a non-emergency police number to report that the front door was open.
Jefferson, 28, was playing video games with her 8-year-old nephew when she heard a noise outside and grabbed her gun.
According to body camera video, Dean yelled, “Put your hands up, show me your hands,” before killing shooting Jefferson through a window shortly after. Two days after the killing, Dean was charged with murder, but before he could be fired, he resigned from the department.
His long-awaited trial began this week. Although there are some people of colour among the 12 jurors and two alternates, none are Black.
After ten witnesses appeared over the course of three days in the trial, surprising both the lawyers and the audience and infuriating activists, Tarrant County prosecutors rested their case on Wednesday. On Monday, testimony will continue.
A coffin bearing the name Diamond Ross was placed in the yard of Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot last year.
Ross, 34, died of an overdose in police custody in Dallas in 2018. A grand jury declined to indict two officers on charges related to her death; a civil lawsuit is pending against them and the city, but one of the claims against the officers has been dismissed due to qualified immunity.