A police officer is seen in bodycam footage shining a flashlight moments before shooting into a window, striking a woman and killing her. (WFAA via Fort Worth Police Department)
A police officer responding to a call early Saturday in Fort Worth, Texas, US, fired a shot into the window of a woman’s home, striking and killing her.
According to ABC News, the woman was black. The officer is white.
The Fort Worth Police Department did not release the name of the officer, ABC Dallas-Forth Worth affiliate WFAA reported.
Bodycam footage released by the department shows the officer, around 2:30 a.m., approaching the window of a home near the 1200 block of E. Allen Ave. The officer sees the woman through the window, shouts, “Put your hands up, show me your hands,” and fires one shot.
“Perceiving a threat,” a statement from the police said, “the officer drew his duty weapon and fired one shot striking the person inside the residence.”
Responding officers entered the home, located the shooting victim and began providing emergency care.
She died at the scene. Police didn’t release her identity.
A firearm was recovered from the woman’s home, and, police said, the investigation is ongoing.
The officer, who’s been with the department since April 2018, has been placed on administrative leave.
James Smith, a neighbor, told WFAA he’d called the non-emergency police number after seeing lights on and the front door open at the woman’s home.
The front door appears open in the bodycam footage, but a screen door looks closed in front of it. The officer doesn’t appear to knock.
“I called my police department for a welfare check,” Smith said, “No domestic violence, no arguing; nothing that they should have been concerned about as far as them coming with guns drawn to my neighbor’s house.”
Hearing the gunshot shocked him, he told WFAA.
“I don’t know what went on in that house,” he added, “but I know she wasn’t a threat.”
