FORT WORTH, Texas — Jurors are deliberating the fate of former Fort Worth police Officer Aaron Dean on Wednesday after lawyers made closing arguments in his murder trial. Dean fatally shot a Black woman inside her mother’s home more than three years ago.
Dean, 38, faces up to life in prison if convicted of murder in the shooting death of 28-year-old Atatiana Jefferson. Dean, who is white, shot Jefferson through her bedroom window from the 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 the doors of the home in the 1200 block of East Allen Avenue were open and lights were on inside. Jefferson and her 8-year-old nephew were up late playing video games and left the doors open to air out smoke after burning hamburgers at dinnertime, according to testimony.
