'Unbelievable' loss: Atatiana Jefferson's family remembers the life of Fort Worth shooting victim

FORT WORTH, Texas – Growing up in the Oak Cliff neighborhood of Dallas, Atatiana Jefferson had two loves: helping people and playing video games.

She would help her dad, Marquis Jefferson, with his treatment as he wheezed through a chronic pulmonary disease, promising him she would one day study medicine and eliminate asthma. She would also spend hours at her mother’s house playing marathon video games on her Sega Genesis.

That urge to help propelled Atatiana through a biology/pre-med degree at Xavier University of Louisiana and spurred her to spend the summer at her mother’s Fort Worth home while her mother went through heart surgery. Atatiana was in that home with her 8-year-old nephew, Zion, early Saturday when a Fort Worth officer shot and killed her through a bedroom window, police said. The two were playing video games at the time.

“This loss is one of the most unbelievable things you can ever imagine – to know that your sister was doing what she normally does and got killed for it,” older sister Ashley Carr said in an interview with USA TODAY. “It’s hard to keep on going. Right now, it’s just really hard.”

Aaron Dean was arrested on a murder charge Monday, hours after resigning from the force, and police on Tuesday released an arrest warrant quoting Zion, the nephew, as saying Atatiana had pulled a gun from her purse after hearing someone creeping around her house.

Body camera video released by Fort Worth police show Dean quietly making his way around the house, past the open front door and into the darkened backyard before shouting at Atatiana to show her hands and, a split second later, firing into the window.

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S. Lee Merritt, an attorney for family, said Dean’s arrest was a good first step but a slew of unanswered questions remain, including if there are more body camera videos of the scene and whether senior officers were present at the time of the shooting.

“This one officer obviously did something terrible and tragic,” he said, “but this was a breakdown from the top to the bottom.”

Adarius Carr, Atatiana’s brother, said the case needs to go beyond Dean’s prosecution. “The system failed him. Whoever sent him out failed him. … The training failed him,” he said. “There’s a lot that needs to be fixed.”

The younger Atatiana Jefferson

Family members still reeled from the news of Atatiana’s death but also reveled in memories of their youngest sibling. The youngest of four, Atatiana was known as a “tomboy in skirts,” climbing trees, joining in flag-football games and, once, shimmying a tree to climb atop of the roof of the house, Ashley Carr said.

She read constantly and became enamored with science, she said, dissecting small animals at home or watching her favorite TV show, “Bill Nye the Science Guy.” She would get straight-As on her report card and help her older siblings with their homework.

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“She was always inquisitive, always trying to learn more, always doing more,” Ashley Carr said.

In high school, Atatiana played clarinet in band and earned a reputation for being nice to outcast students. “There were people who didn’t fit in and she was always very kind to them,” said Cheryl Calhoun, who attended Lake Highlands High School in northeast Dallas with Atatiana.

A 'second mom' to her nephew

After graduating from Xavier, Atatiana was paying down her debt and saving to go to medical school – either at Meharry Medical College in Nashville or in Houston with a friend.

She also indulged in her other love: her nephew, Zion, often taking him on overnights or sharing her love of video games with him. “Zion and Atatiana were best friends,” Amber Carr, Zion’s mother, said. “She was like his second mom. When you see her, you see him. Most people thought he was hers.”

Lapaca Jefferson, 57, Atatiana’s uncle, said the family was stunned by the shooting. He was in Houston attending an anti-violence meetup over the weekend when he heard the news.

“The Jefferson family’s dreams have been shattered,” he said. “It’s a great shock.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Atatiana Jefferson: Fort Worth victim was friend, cartetaker, gamer