Fort Worth City Council members unanimously approved a settlement Tuesday for a woman shot and killed by a Fort Worth police officer inside her home seven years ago.
The settlement will provide $11,250,000 to the family of Atatiana Jefferson, who was killed in her Hillside neighborhood home in south Fort Worth. It resolves all civil claims against the city related to Jefferson’s death.
Council member Chris Nettles said this settlement is a testament to how the city of Fort Worth cares about its residents.
“We know that this amount of money is not necessarily justice to her life, but it’s what we can do as a council,” Nettles said during Tuesday’s council meeting. “Across this dais, a majority of us were not on council when this incident happened, but we worked with city attorneys and city staff to bring forth this amount of justice to this family.”
On Oct. 12, 2019, then-police officer Aaron Dean shot Jefferson while responding to an “open structure” call at her home.
A judge later sentenced Dean to 11 years, 10 months and 12 days in prison for the manslaughter of Jefferson in 2022.
In 2023, the city reached a $3.5 million settlement for Jefferson’s nephew, Zion Carr, who was present and eight years old at the time when Dean shot Jefferson.
The settlement for Jefferson comes weeks after the city approved to authorize another $100,000 in legal fees — increasing the maximum legal fees to $200,000 — to the lawyer representing Dean.
James Smith, the neighbor who called the Fort Worth police nonemergency line on the morning of Oct. 12, 2019, spoke during public comments while holding a picture of Jefferson.
Smith vowed to speak on her behalf when he saw something wrong in the process that followed her shooting and said he heard her in his head saying, “Don’t let them get away with this.”
“The settlement today is not just a monetary settlement,” Smith said. “It’s a testament that this type of shooting shouldn’t go on.”
Kamal Morgan is a government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at kamal@fortworthreport.org.
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