The Police Officer Who Killed Atatiana Jefferson in Her Own Home Is Indicted for Murder
Body camera footage captured Aaron Dean fatally shooting Atatiana Jefferson without announcing that he was a police officer.
Former Texas police officer Aaron Dean has been indicted for the murder of Atatiana Jefferson.
As Reason reported in October, Jefferson was watching her nephew at home when a neighbor noticed that her doors were open and the lights turned on. The neighbor asked emergency services to conduct a welfare check. By the time Dean and another officer with the Fort Worth Police Department responded, the simple welfare check was logged as a burglary call. Body camera footage shows the two officers circling the house without identifying themselves. Dean then catches a glimpse of Jefferson in the window and shouts, "Put your hands up! Show me your hands!" He then shoots her fatally in her own home.
On Friday, a Tarrant County grand jury indicted Dean for murder. The trial date is pending.
In a press conference following Jefferson's death, Chief Edwin Kraus said that Dean resigned from the force the same day the department planned to fire him. Kraus also said there would be an investigation and a third-party review of the department's policies and training practices.
The city apologized in the same press conference for including a blurry still of a gun in the body camera footage released to the public. "The gun is irrelevant," Mayor Betsy Price said at the time. "She was in her own home caring for an 8-year-old nephew. [Jefferson] was a victim."