Botham Jean and Atatiana Jefferson were beloved members of the Dallas-Fort Worth community. Both were young and black. And they both died in the same tragic way: killed in their own homes by white police officers.
Now a foundation established by Jean’s family is offering its support to Jefferson’s relatives.
The Botham Jean Foundation will make a donation to the family of Jefferson, who was killed Saturday when a Fort Worth police officer shot into her dark bedroom.
“Losing a family member is hard in any circumstance,” Allisa Findley, Jean’s sister and foundation president, wrote in an open letter to Jefferson’s family.
“Having a loved one taken in this horrific manner is one far more traumatic and a pain no family should have to bear. Unfortunately, too many families have had to suffer at the hands of those paid to serve and protect us.”
Jean was killed in September 2018 when a Dallas police officer, Amber Guyger, mistook his apartment for her own and thought he was an intruder. Guyger was convicted of murder this month and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
In Fort Worth, about 30 miles west of Jean’s apartment, Jefferson, 28, was playing video games with her 8-year-old nephew when they heard what they thought was a prowler outside. She grabbed her gun for protection and pointed it toward a window.
The person outside turned out to be a Fort Worth police officer who was supposed to be conducting a wellness check. But he didn’t knock on the front door and didn’t say he was a police officer.
Instead, he approached a rear bedroom window and opened fire within two seconds after saying “Put your hands up!”
The Fort Worth officer, Aaron Dean, has resigned and is now charged with murder. The interim police chief and mayor have apologized for Jefferson’s death.
Part of the mission of the Botham Jean Foundation is to support families impacted by police brutality.
“As long as poverty, injustice & inequality persist, none of us can truly rest,” the foundation’s website says.
The Botham Jean Foundation aims to “provide aid to the most vulnerable” and carry on the legacy of the 26-year-old accountant, who “devoted his life to helping people who were less fortunate than him.”