Ex-Fort Worth cop sentenced to nearly 12 years for manslaughter of Atatiana Jefferson

Aaron Dean, a former Fort Worth police officer, enters Tarrant County's 396th District Court on Dec. 15, 2022. On Tuesday, he was sentenced to 11 years and 10 months in prison. (Credit: Amanda McCoy/TNS/ABACA via REUTERS)

Aaron Dean, the former Fort Worth police officer who shot and killed Atatiana Jefferson in 2019, received an 11-year, 10-month prison sentence after a Tarrant County jury unanimously convicted him of manslaughter last week.

In 2019, a neighbor called a nonemergency police line, requesting a wellness check on Jefferson’s mother’s home, where Jefferson was watching her nephew. Aaron Dean, 38, a white police officer, responded to the call and shot Jefferson, a 28-year-old Black woman, through the window. He resigned from the Fort Worth Police Department days later, before the police chief could fire Dean for violating use-of-force and deescalation policies.