Atatiana Jefferson’s family reaches $11.25M settlement with Fort Worth, seven years after her death

Seven years after a police officer shot and killed Atatiana Jefferson inside her own home, her family has reached a settlement with the city of Fort Worth. The city has agreed to pay 11.25 million dollars to Jefferson’s estate, a figure that brings the total the city will have paid her family to 14.75 million dollars.

The Fort Worth City Council is scheduled to take up the settlement on August 25. If approved, the agreement still has to move through a probate court before it becomes final. Much of the new money will be placed into trust funds for Jefferson’s nephew Zion Carr, who was in the home the night she died, along with another nephew and other family members. The city previously approved 3.5 million dollars for Carr in 2023.

Jefferson was killed in October 2019. A neighbor had called a non-emergency line after noticing her front door was open. Former officer Aaron Dean arrived, walked into the backyard, and fired a single shot through a window after shouting at Jefferson to put her hands up. She had been up with her nephew and came to the window after hearing noise outside. The open door, it turned out, was because the two had burned hamburgers inside the house.

Dean was originally charged with murder. In 2022 a jury convicted him of the lesser charge of manslaughter, and he was sentenced to nearly 12 years in prison. He tried to bring his appeal to the Supreme Court in 2024, but the court declined to hear it.

Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker said in a statement that no settlement could undo the loss the family has carried, and expressed hope that the agreement offers some measure of closure. Jefferson’s family filed their wrongful death lawsuit against the city back in 2020.

Jefferson’s sister, Ashley Carr, said the case stands out because the family secured accountability on both the criminal and civil sides, something that rarely happens after a police killing. She was also clear about the limits of that accountability. As she put it, nothing can bring Atatiana home.

The settlement, if finalized, closes the legal chapter of a case that became a national flashpoint over police violence in Black homes. For the family, the number on the agreement was never the point.