FORT WORTH, Texas — Atatiana Jefferson’s face is burned into Fort Worth police Officer Carol Darch’s memory.
Darch peered over the shoulder of fellow officer Aaron Dean after he fired a bullet into a window from the backyard of a Fort Worth home. Jefferson’s eyes were “as big as saucers” before the 28-year-old dropped to the floor, Darch told jurors Tuesday at Dean’s murder trial.
Prosecutors walked the Tarrant County jury through the moments before the gunfire on the second day of testimony. Jurors will decide whether Dean, 38, was justified as a Fort Worth cop to shoot Jefferson, who grabbed a gun after she heard a noise outside her mother’s home. The officers did not identify themselves as police officers before Dean fired, prosecutors said.
