Almost two years after police shot and killed Atatiana Jefferson at her home in Forth Worth, Texas, her family is suing multiple former officers and the city for causing trauma to her 8-year-old relative who witnessed the fatal incident. According to the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Zion Carr “was forced to watch the murder of his aunt, Atatiana Jefferson, at the hands of Fort Worth Police.”

Amber Carr, who is Jefferson’s sister and the child’s mother, is listed as a plaintiff in the complaint, the Forth Worth Star-Telegram reported. Carr brought the suit against former officer Aaron Dean, former Police Chief Ed Kraus and former Mayor Betsy Price, as well as the city of Fort Worth.

Dean shot Jefferson at her family’s home in October 2019, as Blavity previously reported. The cop went to the home for a welfare check with another officer after a neighbor called police at 2:25 a.m. and said the front door, which was normally closed at night, was open.

Jefferson was playing video games with her 8-year-old nephew when police arrived at the house.  The officers first searched outside of the home, then opened a fence gate and walked into the back yard. 

While Dean flashed his light through the back window, Jefferson heard noise outside and went to grab her gun. A short time later, Dean shot the 28-year-old as she was looking through the back window. 

Zion, who was in the bedroom with Jefferson when she was shot, watched the officers enter the house after injuring his aunt. According to the lawsuit, the 8-year-old observed the officers as they gave CPR to Jefferson while “she bled on the floor of her own home.” 

In addition to brining complaints against the officers, the family is seeking to the hold the city accountable. The lawsuit states that the city is responsible because the police department "has displayed a consistent and systematic failure to properly train and supervise its officers on the proper use of force.” 

The complaint adds other examples of Fort Worth police using excessive force. One of the city's high-profile cases occurred in 2009 when police tasered and killed Michael Patrick Jacobs, a 24-year-old Black man in mental distress, Vox reported.

More controversy followed in 2016 when Forth Worth police shot and paralyzed a Black man named David Collie in the back as he walked away from officers. While police identified Collie as a robbery suspect who had raised a weapon at officers, the Forth Worth resident said he never threatened deputies and didn't do anything wrong.

“I want to go ahead and dispel the myth that this is somehow a one-off — that this was just a bad-luck incident from an otherwise sound department,” Lee Merritt, a civil rights attorney, said at a press conference in 2019 after Jefferson’s death. “The Fort Worth Police Department is on pace to be one of the deadliest police departments in the United States.”

In addition to the latest complaint, Jefferson’s family has filed a separate wrongful death lawsuit. Dean, who was arrested and charged with murder after the tragedy, has been out of jail on a $200,000 bond since 2019.