Former Fort Worth officer Aaron Dean has been found guilty of manslaughter for fatally shooting Atatiana Jefferson in her Texas home. According to CNN, Dean faces up to 20 years in prison for the charges. The trial that began on December 5 concluded just ten days later. The prosecutors convinced the jury of Dean’s internalized racism being the motivation for the killing, despite his defense attorney attempting to argue self-defense.
The former officer’s defense attorney alleged that Aaron Dean felt threatened and acted purely to defend himself and others against Jefferson. He tried to argue, “If you believe that Aaron was legitimately defending a third person, and reasonably defending a third person, or if you had a reasonable doubt about whether he was doing such, then you are to acquit Aaron. And you don’t have to agree that it was self-defense or defense of a third person. You just have to decide in your mind that he reasonably believed he was doing one of those two things.”
However, prosecutor Ashlea Deener implored the court to understand that instead, it was Dean who threatened Jefferson’s safety while she was in her own home: “If you can’t feel safe in your own home, where can you feel safe?” Deener continued, “When you think about your house, you think about safety. It’s where you go to retreat, to get away from the world.”
The jury took 13 hours to deliberate following the closing arguments before returning with a guilty verdict. While they were told to consider both murder and manslaughter, they found Dean guilty of the latter.
Local activist Rev. Crystal Bates was glad about the outcome of the trial. However, she acknowledged that there’s still “so much work to be done” and that the result of his sentencing hearing “is going to send a message not only to him but to other law enforcement not to be so trigger-happy when [they] see somebody of color.”
As previously reported by News Onyx, Atatiana Jefferson was killed in October 2019. While playing video games in her home with her eight-year-old nephew, she became alarmed by suspicious noises outside and retrieved her gun from her purse. Officers, including Dean, were responding to a call about her open front door. According to bodycam footage, Dean saw her through her window and ordered her to put her hands up; before giving her time to follow his instructions, he shot her through the window. Dean removed himself from the police force following the tragedy and was soon after arrested.
