Photos of Atatiana Jefferson at a Black Lives Matter vigil at Freedman’s Cemetery. Photography by Danny Fulgencio.
This weekend Dallas protesters gathered around the city to share anger, sadness and exhaustion over the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.
George Floyd died after a Minneapolis officer knelt on his neck. The officer, Derek Chauvin, was arrested for third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Floyd was a Houston native who had just recently moved to Minneapolis.
Breonna Taylor was shot by an officer who entered her Kentucky home on May 13.
On Sunday, hundreds gathered at historic black cemetery Freedman’s to mourn the deaths of Floyd, Taylor and hundreds of other black and Latino names, which were read out loud.
One of those remembered was LHHS alumna Atatiana Jefferson. She was fatally shot by a Fort Worth police officer inside of her home.
On Oct. 12, Fort Worth police officer Aaron Dean showed up at Jefferson’s home after a neighbor called for a welfare check. He shot Jefferson through the window after shouting, “Put your hands up, show me your hands,” before the fatal gunshot. Everything was recorded by the officer’s body cam.
Dean resigned shortly after, and he was indicted on murder charges in December. The court date is still underway.
More recently, the home where Jefferson was shot was vandalized on Friday, May 29.
Photos of the house, which belonged to Atatiana Jefferson’s mother, showed trash, clothing and other items strewn across the floors. The family spokesperson said that at least three televisions were stolen from the property, WFAA reports.
Jefferson, 28, was working as a pharmaceutical representative and saving up money to attend medical school, according to her family.
Jefferson graduated in 2010 from Lake Highlands High School and then went on to study at Xavier University in Louisiana. She graduated in 2014 with a degree in biology.
She moved in with her mother to take care of her after she got sick.
Jefferson’s dad, Marquis Jefferson, and his wife Noella Winslow Jefferson have said the family plans to set up a foundation in her name to help encourage black doctors and to fight homelessness and stress reduction in impoverished communities.
“I’m angry and hurt over what happened to her, but I want that legacy of who she is to be instilled forever in other young people,” Marquis told CBS.
Marquis died in November at the Methodist Charlton Medical Center in Dallas, where he had been after having heart complications and cardiac arrest.
“I can only sum it up as a broken heart,” spokesman Bruce Carter told the Dallas Morning News. “He had to go through so much just to get through the services as a father, and continually doing good to make sure that who he was in their relationship was something he could honor.”
Her family members have described her as always wanting to help others. They said she loved to make others happy and enjoyed being the life of the party.
