Brickbat: Shoot First, Knock and Announce Later

The Fort Worth City Council has agreed to pay $3.5 million to settle a lawsuit brought by Zion Carr, who witnessed a police officer fatally shoot his aunt four years ago when he was 8 years old. Atatiana Jefferson was watching her nephew at home when a neighbor noticed that her doors were open and the lights turned on. The neighbor called 911 to ask that someone conduct a welfare check. But when Officer Aaron Dean and another officer arrived, they treated it as a potential burglary in progress. Without announcing themselves as officers, they went to the back yard looking for signs of a forced entry. That's where Dean shot Jefferson through a window. Dean was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 12 years in prison.