Atatiana Jefferson
Atatiana Jefferson
October 12, 2019
Fort Worth, Texas
What Happened: Atatiana Jefferson, a 28 year old aspiring medical student, was shot and killed by Aaron Dean, an officer at the Fort Worth Police Department. Around 2:30 AM on Oct 12, Jefferson was up playing video games with her nephew. Police received a call from a neighbor who noticed that Jefferson’s door had been open for a few hours. Officers approached the house, and hearing noise, Jefferson pulled a handgun from her purse and pointed it at a window. Dean yelled for Jefferson to put her hands up, then shot her through the glass. The officers did not identify themselves before she was killed.
Charges: Dean resigned from Fort Worth on Oct 14, 2019. He was indicted for murder on December 20, 2019.
Aftermath: Police chief Ed Kraus defended Jefferson’s right to have a gun and said regarding the body cam footage: “Nobody looked at that video and said there was any doubt that this officer [Dean] acted inappropriately.” The neighbor who made the call was later described as being upset, as he had not suggested that a robbery was happening. Learn more at sources below.
Sources:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/15/us/aaron-dean-atatiana-jefferson.html?auth=login-google
https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/20/us/atatiana-jefferson-death-officer-indicted/index.html