tonight, lives cut short. >> hi, my name is tatiana jefferson. >> shouted home by police. their deaths becoming a rallying cry. now families united by grief, searching for justice. >> we really shouldn't be dealing with an assassination. >> and police under pressure. >> get down on one knee! >> the exclusive look at a targeted solution. "nightline," shot at home, will be right back.

[ dramatic music ]ing ] ahhhh! -ahhhh! elliott. you came back!

it could be you. it could be me. it could be anybody. my son was the light in any dark room. >> reporter: two women at two very different stages of a long journey. strangers who share a sorrow few of us know, and they are about to meet. >> i'm not nervous. i just don't really know what to say to her.

>> reporter: it had only been a few days since amber carr had buried her sister, gunned down by a policeman in her own home. >> in your home? the place you go to get away from the world? makes no sense. you can't put any sense to that. >> reporter: alison john's son botham also suffered that same fate. >> if i could ask her anything, it's how do you cope? how do you cope? >> botham jean! >> reporter: the names botham jean and tatiana, now a rallying cry. >> she wasn't killed. she was murdered. >> reporter: flash points in the national conversation on police and the use of deadly force. >> no justice, no peace!

>> reporter: highlighted by a new study that found black men are 2.5 more times likely to be killed by police than white men. botham jean is one of that number. he was fully conscious of the stigma he bore as a man of color. >> he loved to dress well, and i would ask, what do you think that you must look the part every time? he said to me, mommy, i know what it is when i walk into an elevator and a little white lady pulls her bag closer to her. i dress well so that i am not mistaken. >> they can see your truth, lord. i pray for your hand of protection and guidance. >> reporter: as an active church member, the 26-year-old's voice lifted up the congregation. >> he was about forgiveness.

he was about compassion. he was about reaching the underserved and underprivileged. ♪ >> reporter: but none of that mattered on september 6, 2018. jean was in his home watching tv. amber guyger, says she accidently walked into jean's apartment, mistaking it for her own and shot him dead. >> up to now when i reflect on it, i still cannot believe that that could ever, ever happen. it's just, it's still difficult to understand that botham is not here. ♪ >> reporter: your son, a good

man. >> did all the right things. >> reporter: this past september, the criminal case against amber guyger went to trial. >> why did you fire? >> i was scared. whoever was inside of my apartment was going to kill me. and i'm sorry. i have to live with that every single day. >> reporter: amber guyger was found guilty of murder, sentenced to ten years in prison. >> i am much better. i feel much lighter. so i'm using this period now to heal. >> reporter: the jean family hired lee merritt to represent them in their ongoing civil case. >> my hope in all of these cases in holding police officers responsible is that a message will go out to the law enforcement community that they're not untouchable. there will be consequences if you pull that trigger and don't have the proper justification. >> reporter: but just 11 days after guyger was convicted. >> growing outrage in texas.

a woman killed by police in her own home. >> reporter: 28-year-old tatiana jefferson was killed in ft. worth, just 33 miles away from where botham jean lived. >> you really can't make any sense of any of it. >> reporter: jefferson's family's fight for justice is just beginning. the wounds still raw. >> my family, we really shouldn't be at this point dealing with an assassination. >> reporter: why do you call it that? >> because that is exactly what it is. >> hi, my name is tatiana jefferson. >> she had diabetes, and she always talked about being the person to come up with a cure for diabetes. she was extremely strong. she was her own person. >> reporter: amber's 8-year-old son zion was with her when she was killed. adult trauma recounted through a boy's eyes.

>> he said that he was sad. and i asked him why, why were you sad? he said well, the police shot aunty, and that was the first time that i had heard that. no one had given me any details on what happened. and i hated that my son had to be the one to tell me he was actually there to witness it. and could have been a target as well. i know i'm crying. and it looks like i'm sad, but i'm really angry. >> police operator. 873. what's the address? >> i'm calling about my neighbor. >> reporter: it all started with a concerned call to a non-emergency police line from a neighbor. who later told us he was worried medical help was needed. >> it's not normal for them to have both of the doors open at this time of night. >> reporter: the body cam footage shows the officer dean walking past the front door. >> he id he was sitting up

because they were playing video games. when three heard something outside she told him to lay down. >> reporter: he went around the back of the house and approached a bedroom window. >> he heard him shout, put your hands up. >> put your hands up! >> reporter: the officer shot through the window. his split-second decision claim the jefferson's life. if you could talk to the officer, what would you say to him? >> what was he thinking? what was he thinking? what was going through your mind? were you afraid? why were you afraid? >> reporter: lee merritt found himself representing another loved one whose family message was shot in her own home. >> reporter: is it possible that officer dean was just a young officer who made a terrible mistake and was not at his best. >> it is possible. it's possible that he was just poorly trained. wasn't ready to be out on his own.

>> reporter: aaron dean declined our request for an interview. his lawyer said they had no comment. dean had a promising career, commended in his personal files as a young officer work being at a level commonly seen from more experienced officers. in this video obtained by abc news, here he is interviewing for the job back in 2017. >> i want to serve my fellow citizens in an up close and personal way. i like the action and adventure that i hear the stories told about that the job seems to promise. >> reporter: take note how he answers this fateful question. >> will you be able to kill somebody if you have to? >> no problem. >> reporter: aaron dean has not aaron has resigned and is indicted for murder. >> i respect the profession. they run towards the danger. but we amplify the idea that they get in fear in situations to the point that's reasonable.

>> reporter: coming up, inside the minds of police officers under stress. and, when amber and alison meet for the first time, what wisdom is shared? for the long road ahead? (indistinct announcement over pa system) i'm a baby! what? treat your cough seriously with robitussin dm max. it soothes in seconds and delivers fast, powerful cough relief for hours. robitussin. because it's never just a cough. ♪ oh, oh, (announcer)®! ♪ once-weekly ozempic® is powerful cough relief for hours. helping many people with type 2 diabetes like james lower their blood sugar. a majority of adults who took ozempic® reached an a1c under 7 and maintained it. here's your a1c. oh! my a1c is under 7! (announcer) and you may lose weight. adults who took ozempic® lost on average up to 12 pounds. i lost almost 12 pounds! oh! (announcer) ozempic® does not increase the risk of major cardiovascular events like heart attack, stroke, or death.

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a dark night in ft. worth, texas. you're watching police body cam footage. inside her home, tatiana jefferson has no idea her date with death is imminent. >> put your hands up, show me your hands!

>> reporter: the ft. worth police department, the chief came out almost immediately and condemned what happened. >> nobody looked at that video and said there's any doubt that this officer acted inappropriately. >> reporter: how significant is that? >> it's huge, but when are we going to look at the system itself and look at american policing and say what can we do differently? >> reporter: so we went in search of answers and headed here to the maryland eastern shore where we were given exclusive access to close quarters defense. once mostly reserved for u.s. special ops and federal agents. >> they have no idea what they're going into. which is valuable, because we want them to do exactly what they would do on the street. >> reporter: dwayne deeter is the founder, expert in hand to hand combat and weapons training. today a group of police officers and sheriff's deputies will be his students. >> we all love you. it's about making you better.

so all those trainees come with me. >> reporter: his program is all about subjects cops rarely share with the public or their families. stress and fear. >> stress not controlled can make a person be aggressive to someone that's not necessary to be aggressive to. >> reporter: jackie dalton, 36, a u.s. coast guard veteran, now a rookie cop in maryland, fresh out of the academy. >> i acorps my co-workers and my chief. i don't want to let them down. >> reporter: one of the key tools in dwayne's training, this simple cloth and rope called the hood. each time the hood comes up, the trainee encounters a new scenario. inches away could be a gunman or pedestrian asking directions. so the hood teaches students to do what? >> to be able to react quickly. an ability to be aggressive, assertive or passive. compassionate. all has to be within split

seconds as it applies. >> reporter: dalton suits up. >> i'm going to lead you in right here like this. >> there's noise to help build the stressors. >> reporter: so, in this, you want stress. >> yes, we need it. >> reporter: stress is their friend. >> it will become their friend. at first, it is not their friend normally. >> reporter: deeter observes her. >> she's verbalizing. de-escalating. >> reporter: given a baseline on how she performs under stress before his training. >> get back, get back, get back! [ bleep ] >> she's getting her gun, which is very common. that would be a bad situation that happened. her energy was high enough that she eventually shot the person. >> reporter: even though the person was moving away from her. >> exactly. was not a threat. >> reporter: though he attacked her initially, he moved back. so that's where we do not shoot. he's no longer an active threat. you can relax, just relax.

please just describe why you shot that person and used lethal threat? >> i used lethal threat because i felt fear for my life and they could have threatened either the person off to my left or myself or any other citizens if i let them get away. >> did you see that he had any weapon or not, the person off to your right? >> he had a gun. >> and did he shoot at you from that position? or what did you see? >> he was aiming it towards me. he did not shoot. >> reporter: what she thought wasn't reality. >> and not even close. she actually saw a gun. >> reporter: many of us were raised to believe that the truth is always the truth. but what we saw today under stress, the truth can look different. >> their perceived truth, that's right, it's because they are not used to this level of stress, so their truth is very different sometimes than what truthfully happened. and they will say what they believe right off the bat, because that's what they saw.

>> reporter: deeter says dalton isn't the only student perceiving things differently under stress. >> he was taking my gun, he actually had it. >> reporter: sharing these videos with us of others on day one. can you train that out of a person? >> absolutely. we do it every single time. >> you did good. >> reporter: dalton is exhausted. drained, distraught, yet she shot an unarmed man. >> all right, you did great, you did great. have you ever felt that before? no. and a little bit of training, this will be a comfortable thing for you. you'll feel it. you'll feel you have the energy to respond to it and react to it. have a seat, relax. >> all right, thanks. >> reporter: what do you think? >> it's stressful. it's emotionally draining. >> reporter: my sense from him is you did a hell of a job. >> i appreciate that, but

sometimes it's not enough. >> reporter: you're shaking. >> it's an important job. and i feel a lot of pride in doing what i do. >> get down on one knee! >> reporter: deeter's program can take weeks. but even after just one day of training. >> she did better. >> she did better. >> reporter: we witnessed a transformation in dalton. >> get down, get down! >> now to the person was complying and went for the gun, she was able to pick it up. >> reporter: she aced it. controlling stress, dietzer says, actually improves decision making. >> you're smiling this time. >> yeah, i'm smiling this time. it was, it felt less stressful, even though i was still going through sort of the same thing. i was able to focus a little better. >> reporter: what i saw from you this time is confidence. >> right. >> reporter: deeter's training

program costs $350 per officer per day. >> and stop, that's good. >> it helps them to adjust to what is in fact going on around them. that's not something that you get in the basic police academy. it's just not. >> reporter: budget challenges, however, face every police chief in the country. chief walters' department has help from a private benefactor. >> great work. great having you, super job. super job. be safe everybody. >> reporter: be safe at the end of every shift, that's the goal of law enforcement and those they serve. for alison jean whose families like hers there is no training, only the tender teacher heartache provides, wisdom jean is about to share with amber karr, still in the early stages of despair over her sister's death. >> hello. >> hi. >> how are you? >> i'm good. how are you? >> good, how are you?

>> so good to see you. >> you too. >> such a terrible thing. i really wanted to reach out to you, reach out to your family. let you know that we are with you. >> thank you. >> we are. >> thank you. >> tatiana's death impacted my, very, very, very, very strongly. because it seemed so much like what botham went through. it's so terrible. >> i know, right? >> but we have to continue. >> to live. >> yeah. what keeps me going, too, is the energy which botham had. i just know that he would not want me to -- >> give up. >> give up. you say you're tired. i used to say that, too. because you're wrapped up in grief, but at the same time, you're fighting for justice. >> mm-hm. >> you have to try to build strength.

>> reporter: but casualties and cost of policing in america are high. the stress and sacrifice real. a split second. where life is lost. lives are changed. forever. to be honest a little dust it never bothered me. until i found out what it actually was. dust mite droppings! eeeeeww! dead skin cells! gross! so now, i grab my swiffer sweeper and heavy-duty dusters. duster extends to three feet to get all that gross stuff gotcha! and for that nasty dust on my floors, my sweeper's on it. the textured cloths grab and hold dirt and hair no matter where dust bunnies hide. no more heebie jeebies. phew. glad i stopped cleaning and started swiffering.

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and finally tonight, on this first day of the new year, it was martin luther king jr. who said human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable. every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering and struggle. that's "nightline." thanks for the company, america. goodnight. [ dramatic music ]ing ]

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