Texas Jurors convicted the former Fort Worth officer, Aaron Dean of manslaughter in the fatal shooting of Atatiana Jefferson who was shot and killed through a rear window of her home in 2019.
Jurors were also considering a murder charge against Aaron Dean but instead convicted him of manslaughter. Tarrant County prosecutor Ashlea Deener said Wednesday during closing arguments that Jefferson acted reasonably and within her rights to protect herself and her nephew.
“We have not seen one shred of evidence that anything that Atatiana did was unlawful. In fact, we heard quite the opposite,” she said. “Atatiana Jefferson didn’t commit any criminal acts by walking up to the window with her gun, thinking someone was outside. It’s what many of us would do. That’s what you would expect us to do to try to protect ourselves and, in this case, Zion as well.”
As we previously reported, Trial began in the beginning of last week where prosecutors questioned Dean about shooting Jefferson after a neighbor called a non-emergency police line to report that the front door to Jefferson’s home was open. She had been playing video games that night with her nephew and it emerged at trial that they left the doors open to vent smoke from hamburgers the boy burned.
The trial for the cop who murdered #AtatianaJefferson started over a week ago. No nephew should have to watch his aunt die. No child should have to relive it in court, yet here we are. Little attention given to this case.
pic.twitter.com/vzpBQ4vFr7— I’m a Vessel! (@DjamarV) December 15, 2022
Police body camera footage showed that Dean and a second officer who responded to the call didn’t identify themselves as police at the house. Dean and Officer Carol Darch testified that they thought the house might have been burglarized and quietly moved into the fenced-off backyard looking for signs of forced entry.
RELATED:UPDATE: Former Fort Worth Officer Aaron Dean Indicted for Murder of Atatiana Jefferson
There, Dean, whose gun was drawn, fired a single shot through the window a split-second after shouting at Jefferson, who was inside, to show her hands.
I still think about the fact that Atatiana Jefferson’s poor father died weeks later bc his heart literally gave out likely due to grief. The fact that her family’s been waiting 3 endlessly long years for a resolution is mindblowing. I pray they get something resembling justice. https://t.co/H7uzRGTatx
— Kaleena (@KaleenaRivera) December 5, 2022
Dean testified that he had no choice but to shoot when he saw Jefferson pointing the barrel of a gun directly at him. But under questioning from prosecutors he acknowledged numerous errors, again and again conceding that actions he took before and after the shooting were “more bad police work”.