Officer fatally shoots woman in her home

Police responding to a request for a wellness check early Saturday shot and killed 28-year-old Atatiana Jefferson, an African American woman, through her bedroom window. A neighbor called a Fort Worth, Texas, police non-emergency number at about 2 a.m. to report Jefferson’s front door was left open for several hours. Jefferson was playing video games with her 8-year-old nephew, family members said, when she thought she heard a prowler and went to the window to check. The boy was in the room when she was shot.

What went wrong? A statement from police said the officer perceived a threat when he saw Jefferson through the window. Officers found a gun in the home but have not said whether Jefferson was holding it when she was shot. Body camera footage revealed the officer called for her to raise her hands but did not identify himself as police. Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price said the police department would do an internal investigation. The officer, a white male who has worked for the department since April 2018, was placed on leave.

Dig deeper: Read about the sentencing earlier this month of a police officer in nearby Dallas to 10 years in prison for shooting and killing a man whose home the officer entered by mistake. Watch the body camera footage of the Fort Worth shooting.