“Former Fort Price police officer discovered responsible of manslaughter of Atatiana Jefferson” was first revealed by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media group that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public coverage, politics, authorities and statewide points.
The Fort Price ex-police officer who shot and killed Atatiana Jefferson at her mom’s residence in 2019 was convicted of manslaughter by a jury that deliberated on Wednesday and Thursday.
The jury rejected the extra severe cost of homicide, and sentencing will come later. Below the Texas Code, the jail sentence for manslaughter is between two and 20 years.
Aaron Dean, 38, a white police officer, resigned from the Fort Price Police Division days after fatally taking pictures Jefferson, a 28-year-old Black lady.
In a press convention two days after the taking pictures, Fort Price Police Chief Ed Kraus apologized to Jefferson’s household and the Fort Price group.
“Had the officer not resigned, I might have fired him for violations of a number of insurance policies together with our use-of-force coverage, our de-escalation coverage and unprofessional conduct,” Kraus mentioned on the October 2019 press convention.
Jefferson’s 8-year-old nephew was within the room on the time she was killed. They’d stayed up late enjoying video video games. Now 11, he testified through the homicide trial this week. When requested what he thought after seeing his aunt was shot, the nephew mentioned, “I used to be pondering, is it a dream?”
Dean and Carol Darch, one other Fort Price police officer, responded to Jefferson’s mom’s residence after a neighbor known as a nonemergency police line requesting a wellness verify as a result of he seen the girl’s door was open, one thing he discovered uncommon.
Nevertheless, the police chief mentioned the officers responded to what he described as an “open construction name,” which is completely different from the process for a wellness verify.
In response to Kraus, this type of name contains officers parking away from the home and approaching with warning, whereas a wellness verify would have begun with a knock on the door. It’s not clear why the officers responded with an open construction name moderately than a wellness verify.
In his testimony, Dean mentioned he believed there was a housebreaking on the residence and whereas he was within the yard he noticed a gun pointed at him.
In response to The Dallas Morning Information, footage from Dean’s physique digital camera reveals him stroll to the again of the home, then flip towards a window. He yelled at Jefferson — “Put your arms up! Present me your arms!” — then shot her by way of the window in seconds.
Each the protection and the prosecution known as on their very own use-of-force consultants to testify, every supplied differing assessments of Dean’s actions on Oct. 12.
On the time of her killing, Jefferson was dwelling together with her mom. A graduate of Xavier College of Louisiana, she had aspirations of turning into a health care provider.
The taking pictures got here lower than two weeks after former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger was sentenced to 10 years in jail for the homicide of 26-year-old Botham Jean in his Dallas residence. Guyger mentioned she mistook Jean’s condo for her personal, one ground beneath, and shot and killed him after getting into it.
Jean and Jefferson’s deaths drew consideration to the fraught relationship between race, policing and the American legal justice system, which later gained much more nationwide scrutiny following the homicide of George Floyd by a white Minneapolis police officer in Might 2020.
This text initially appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2022/12/15/fort-worth-police-officer-atatiana-jefferson/.
The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and fascinating Texans on state politics and coverage. Study extra at texastribune.org.
