Shooting Of Atatiana Jefferson

Atatiana Koquice Jefferson, a 28-year-old woman, was shot inside her home by a police officer in Fort Worth, Texas, United States, in the early morning of October 12, 2019. Police arrived at her home after a neighbor called a non-emergency number, stating that Jefferson's front door was open. Police body camera footage showed officers walking outside the home with flashlights for a few minutes then one officer yells, "Put your hands up! Show me your hands!", while discharging his weapon through a window. Police found a handgun near Jefferson's body, which according to her eight-year-old nephew, she was pointing toward the window before being shot. On October 14, 2019, Officer Aaron Dean, the shooter, resigned from the Fort Worth Police Department and was arrested on a murder charge. On December 20, 2019, Dean was indicted for murder. Jefferson was black and the officer who shot her is white, prompting news outlets to compare Jefferson's shooting to the September 2018 murder of Botham Jean in nearby Dallas.

On December 15, 2022, Dean was found guilty on the lesser offense of manslaughter. He was sentenced to 11 years, 10 months, and 12 days of imprisonment.

People involved

Atatiana Jefferson

Atatiana Koquice Jefferson (November 28, 1990 – October 12, 2019) was a 28-year-old African American woman and pre-medical graduate student of Xavier University of Louisiana. Relatives said she worked in human resources. She lived in the house to care for her mother and nephew.

Aaron Dean

On October 14, 2019, Interim Police Chief Ed Kraus identified Officer Aaron Dean as the shooter. Dean was commissioned as an officer with the Fort Worth Police Department in April 2018 after completing the Fort Worth Police Academy a month prior in March 2018. At the time of the shooting, Dean had been with the department for approximately 18 months. Prior to the shooting, the only substantial entry in his Fort Worth police personnel file was about a traffic collision.

In 2004, Dean received a citation from the Arlington Police Department in his hometown of Arlington, Texas, for assault by contact, a class C misdemeanor, while at the University of Texas at Arlington for touching a woman's breast in the campus library. The incident was discussed during his videotaped job interview with the Fort Worth Police. He pled no contest and paid a fine. According to the Fort Worth Police Department, a Class C misdemeanor would not prevent employment with their department as a police officer.

Dean's training records from his first year on the job note concerns from supervisors. These concerns included that he had "tunnel vision" and "needs improvement on communicating with the public and fellow officers." Dean's most recent performance evaluation was made in the spring of 2019, where he received high marks from a supervisor.

Killing

Welfare call

It has been reported that just prior to 2:30 a.m on the morning of October 12, 2019, police received a "welfare call" from the neighborhood of Hillside Morningside, noting that the front door to someone's home was open. According to Jefferson's family, prior to police arriving at her home, she was playing video games in her home with her nephew.

Open Structure

During the trial it has been established that, rather than responding to a "welfare call" as previously reported, the officers were dispatched to a "Signal 56" or "Open Structure" call. It has been suggested that the police policy for these two calls is very different.

Body camera footage

Body camera footage released by the Fort Worth Police Department shows that two officers had walked quietly around the side of the home. Officer Aaron Dean had walked into Jefferson's backyard. Seeing Jefferson in the window of her home, the officer yelled "put your hands up! Show me your hands!" and then fired a single shot through Jefferson's window.

Describing the video, the BBC
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