Police are investigating the incident as a terroristic threat, records show.
By Isabella Volmert and Aria Jones
A casket bearing the name of Atatiana Jefferson and other people shot by Fort Worth police was left outside Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker’s home Saturday morning.
Photos shared on Facebook showed a gray coffin with red paint dripping down its sides and “ATATIANA” painted on top. Jefferson, who was Black, was killed in 2019 by then-Officer Aaron Dean, who is currently on trial for murder.
A red target was painted on the casket’s side. Other names on it included 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 an exchange of gunfire between police and robbery suspects in 2018 that also killed Fort Worth Officer Garrett Hull. Both Collie and Steptoe were Black.
According to a police report, officers responded to the mayor’s residence in the Ridglea North neighborhood near Interstate 30 and Camp Bowie Boulevard about 8:30 a.m. The report says the incident is being investigated as a terroristic threat.
Fort Worth police confirmed officers responded to a disturbance call at the home but said no additional information could be released because of the ongoing investigation.
The mayor’s office referred a request for comment to the police department.
Jefferson’s killing by Dean, who is white, sparked outrage around the country.
Dean, now 38, was one of two officers who arrived at Jefferson’s home early Oct. 12, 2019, after a neighbor called a nonemergency police number to report that the house’s front door was open.
Jefferson, 28, who was playing video games with her 8-year-old nephew, grabbed her gun after hearing a noise outside. Body-camera footage showed that Dean shouted, “Put your hands up, show me your hands,” and then fatally shot Jefferson through a window seconds later.
Dean was arrested on a murder charge two days after the shooting and resigned from the department before he could be fired.
His much-delayed trial began this week. Although some of the 12 jurors and two alternates are people of color, none are Black.
Tarrant County prosecutors rested their case Wednesday, after 10 witnesses testified over three days in the trial — surprising lawyers and observers and angering activists. Testimony will resume Monday.
Last year, a coffin bearing the name of Diamond Ross was placed in the yard of Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot. Ross, 34, died of an overdose in 2018 while in Dallas police custody. A grand jury declined to indict two officers on charges related to her death; a civil lawsuit against them and the city is pending, but one of the claims against the officers has been dismissed because of qualified immunity.
