Sacramento Kings player Harrison Barnes and Malik Jackson of the Philadelphia Eagles, have offered to pay for Atatiana Jefferson’s funeral, an attorney for Jefferson’s family revealed to the Dallas Morning News.
Barnes and his wife, Brittany, will be paying half of the funeral costs, and Jackson is covering the other half, according to the news outlet.
Jefferson, 28, was killed by former Ft. Worth police officer Aaron Dean last weekend. She was inside her home playing video games with her 8-year-old nephew at the time.
Dean was responding to a non-emergency call placed by Jefferson’s neighbor who was concerned about Jefferson’s door being open. Jefferson’s nephew said that she pulled a handgun out of her purse and aimed at the window, after hearing noise around the apartment. Dean shot and killed Jefferson within seconds of creeping up to the property and yelling for her to put her hands up.
“My wife and I want to do something for that family. It was a tragic situation that happened,” Barnes told reporters on Thursday (Oct. 17). “No one should be killed during a wellness check, but the biggest thing is anytime someone has to go through that, the last thing that you want to have to worry about is trying to come up with the money for a funeral.”
Barnes, who played for the Dallas Mavericks before being traded earlier in the year, still has a connection to the area. “Anytime you come into a community, you always have a piece of that community with you and you want to give back,” he said.
Kings forward Harrison Barnes, formerly of the Dallas Mavericks, has offered to pay for funeral expenses for Atatiana Jeffereson, who was killed by a police officer in her Ft. Worth home. He explains below. pic.twitter.com/x9bWwZeDAc
— Sean Cunningham (@SeanCunningham) October 17, 2019
Jefferson’s death came days after former DPD officer Amber Guyger was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the murder of Botham Jean, who was also killed in his own home.
Dean resigned from the police department earlier this week and has since been charged with murder.
Jefferson’s funeral is reportedly scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 19.