FORT WORTH, Texas — Former Fort Worth police Officer Aaron Dean was convicted of manslaughter Thursday in the death of 28-year-old Atatiana Jefferson, who the ex-cop fatally shot while responding to a call at her mother’s home more than three years ago.
Dean, 38, faces up to 20 years in prison. Dean, who is white, shot Jefferson through her bedroom window from her backyard when the officer responded to a call at the East Fort Worth home. A concerned neighbor called a nonemergency police line about 2:30 a.m. on Oct. 12, 2019, because home’s doors were open and the lights were on inside. Jefferson, who was Black, and her 8-year-old nephew were up late playing video games and left the doors open to air out smoke after they burned hamburgers at dinnertime.
A Tarrant County jury deliberated Dean’s guilt for about 14 hours over two days. The jury rejected a more serious murder conviction, which could have led to a life sentence. The difference is whether jurors believed Dean acted intentionally or knowingly for a murder conviction versus recklessly for manslaughter. Although some of the 12 jurors and two alternates are people of color, none are Black.
