Former Dallas police officer accused of killing his neighbor in Fort Worth arrested

A former Dallas police officer is facing a murder charge in the death of his neighbor in Fort Worth.

Cathryn “Cat” Lafitte, 43, is being held at the Tarrant County Jail where she faces one count of murder and one count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

His bail is $100,000.

According to initial reports, Fort Worth Police responded at approximately 6:30 p.m. on Aug. 2 to a report of a shooting in the 5500 block of Goodman Avenue. A male victim had been shot multiple times at the scene. That person was taken to a nearby hospital where she died.

Tarrant County coroner’s medical records identify the victim as 45-year-old JaMarlon Lee Montrice Clardy. The man died of multiple gunshot wounds, records show.

According to an arrest warrant affidavit, Clardy and Lafitte had been arguing for a “long time” about Clardy’s dogs.

On the day of the shooting, Clardy and a witness previously described by police as his girlfriend went to see Lafitte to retrieve a necklace he had taken from her.

The witness said that after the door opened, Lafitte pulled a gun and shot Clardy. Lafitte told police Clardy lunged at her, before she grabbed her gun and fired “until the bullets ran out”.

Lafitte told investigators she also shot the witness who accompanied Clardy because she thought it was the same person who physically assaulted her in July. Detectives said Lafitte referred to a police report describing an incident in which Lafitte attempted to photograph Clardy’s dogs, and Lafitte said Clardy and an unknown woman attacked her.

In 2010, Lafitte appeared on the cover of the Metro section of The Dallas Morning News for painting murals of a smiling police officer under a highway in Deep Ellum, because she was “tired of resenting” her job. At the time, she was a police officer in Dallas.

“If I could plant a little seed in someone’s head that cops are the good guys, I’m glad,” he said at the time.

The following year, Lafitte was fired from the department after an internal investigation found that she had “escalated” an altercation at a Plano hospital and then posted comments about the incident on Facebook that made the police department appear to be in bad light, he reported. The news in 2011.

Lafitte was accused of assaulting a hospital employee with a boot and bragged about the incident on Facebook. He told investigators he acted in self-defense.