A jury has convicted former Fort Worth police officer Aaron Dean of manslaughter, a charge that leaves Dean facing up to 20 years in jail for killing Atatiana Jefferson in 2019. Dean was acquitted of a murder charge.
Dean, who is white, was responding to a non-emergency call from a neighbour, fatally shot Jefferson, who was Black, through an open window. Dean testified that he had no choice but to shoot Jefferson after she pointed a gun at him, but his partner testified that he never said anything about a gun before firing the shot.
The killing outraged members of the Fort Worth community, who pushed for Dean’s arrest shortly after the killing in October of 2019. They got what they wanted when the Fort Worth Police Department released the body camera footage of the shooting and arrested Dean, 38, who quit the police force without speaking to investigators.
After Dean’s arrest, however, the progress of the case slowed considerably due to the Covid-19 pandemic and health issues affecting Dean’s lawyer.
The case finally went to trial last week, and, after 13 hours of deliberation spread over two days, the Tarrant County jury handed down a split decision for prosecutors on Thursday – finding Dean innocent of murder but guilty of manslaughter.
The major issue at stake in the trial was whether Jefferson was armed when Dean shot her. Dean claimed that she was, but prosecutors said that there was no evidence to support the claim. Dean said that he only mentioned the gun to his partner, Officer Carol Darch, after he saw it on the floor following the shooting.
There were other major issues with the pair’s work: the body camera footage showed that Dean and Ms Darch failed to properly identify themselves as police officers when they arrived at the house and that Dean failed to adminster any first aid to Jefferson after shooting her.
Jefferson, who had been playing video games that night with her nephew, had left the door of her house open to air it out after he burned hamburgers. Jefferson’s eight-year-old nephew Zion testified that she took out a gun because she believed the officers were intruders in her backyard, though it was not clear from his testimony whether she pointed it out the window.
Dean’s conviction is notable in that police are rarely convicted of any crime when they shoot people who are themselves armed.
The killing of Ms Jefferson was a precursor to the police killings of Black Americans that rocked the country the following year, including the killing of Breonna Taylor, who like Ms Jefferson, was fatally shot in her home.
