Atatiana Jefferson's father slams killing of unarmed 28-year-old in her own home: 'She's my only daughter, I don’t want a hug'
FORT WORTH, TEXAS: Atatiana Jefferson's father has described her death as "senseless" after a Forth Worth police officer shot her inside her own residence.
A day after the tragedy, her family is still trying to make sense of her death and have a lost of questions they want to be answered as while flowers and candles sit outside their E. Allen Avenue residence, CBS News reports.
The family told the outlet how Jefferson had so much going for her and said that they are trying to keep her memory alive.
Marquis Jefferson woke up Saturday morning to find his only daughter had passed. “Her mother called me yesterday morning. She said ‘Tay was shot,’” he said.
“I mean it’s senseless. My daughter was 28. My daughter was 28 years old. Had her whole life in front of her.”
Fort Worth police arrived at Jefferson's house for a welfare check around 2.30 am on October 12 after a neighbor dialed 911 reporting that her front door was left ajar.
“I have nothing against the neighbor,” Marquis said. “If you see something going on at my house with my daughter, you need to call police. But it’s the way that the police acted.”
The officer's body cam video shows him walking through Jefferson's backyard to a bedroom window where she was standing. He ordered her to put her hands up, and not even a full second had passed before she was shot dead.
“You have to know that was somebody’s daughter,” he said. “Somebody loved her and there was a better way. It didn’t have to be like that.”
Marquis sais he is grateful for his daughter's final words although he is still processing her death. “I texted her, I said I loved her and she texted me back and said ‘I love you too,’” he told the outlet.
According to him, the father-daughter duo had a very special bond.
“When she was growing up, I read to her a lot. I bought her a lot of books,” Marquis said. “Oh, she loved to read all the time. Her mother would tell me ‘She’s in there reading, reading, reading.’”
Jefferson went on to get a pre-med degree from Xavier University and was working in pharmaceutical equipment sales to save up for medical school when she died.
Noella, her step-mother, recalled how Jefferson had so many hopes, dreams, and aspirations.
“We lost her for no reason,” Noella said. “We’ve seen many cases like this, where you think someone had learned from it, but we think there’s a low learning curve here for the police department and we need to see how can we make it better.”
According to her, the department needs to advance their training so that no one else goes through this.
“Unlike Botham Jean, I don’t want no hug. That’s my one and only daughter,” Marquis said. “I’ll never forget that.”