FORT WORTH, Texas — Jurors spent the day Wednesday deliberating the fate of former Fort Worth Police officer Aaron Dean and whether he committed murder, manslaughter or no crime at all when he 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 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 they burned hamburgers at dinnertime.
