Family, Friends Remember Woman Killed by Officer in Fort Worth Home

A makeshift memorial is growing outside the Fort Worth home where 28-year-old Atatiana Jefferson was killed.

Monday night, her siblings said they were relieved that former officer Aaron Dean was arrested.

Jefferson recently moved to Fort Worth to help take care of her ailing mother.

She was playing video games with her 8-year-old nephew, Zion, when an officer shot her through a window.

"No lights, no siren, no announcing yourself, no loud bangs," said Jefferson's brother Adarius Carr.

The murder charge against Dean came as little solace to the family mourning the death of a daughter and sister.

"She was a smart, ambitious, fun-loving, always cracking jokes person," sister Ashley Carr said.

A pharmaceutical equipment sales representative, Jefferson wanted to be a doctor.

She graduated from Lake Highlands High School in 2010 and earned a biology degree from Xavier University of Louisiana in 2014.

"I am frozen," said Shahnaz Islam, assistant coordinator with the school's biology department.

On campus, staff and students wanted to know why.

"Everybody has the right to live. This is absolutely not fair," Islam said.

Jefferson also sang in the school's gospel choir.

"I'm expecting to see her at reunions and homecomings and different university events down the line, but that has been taken," said DeVon Pruitt, who sang alongside Jefferson.

Police were called to Jefferson's home early Saturday morning by a neighbor concerned about a front door left open for hours.

Minutes later, she was dead.

Carr, a Navy veteran, called it a complete overreaction.

"It was 2 seconds from verbal command to deadly force," he said.

Funeral arrangements for Jefferson are pending.

A GoFundMe page for her had raised $200,000 as of Monday night.