Officer charged with murder after shooting woman
FORT WORTH, Texas — The Fort Worth officer who fatally shot 28-year-old Atatiana Jefferson in her home this weekend was jailed Monday on a murder charge.
Aaron Dean, 34, was booked Monday evening into the Tarrant County Jail. He had resigned from the Fort Worth Police Department earlier in the day.
Interim Police Chief Ed Kraus said he had intended to fire Dean, who was set to be interviewed Monday morning, but Dean quit first. His record will reflect a dishonorable discharge.
Kraus said Dean resigned before he answered any questions.
Dean, who had been on the force since April 2018, has not been cooperative, the chief said.
“He resigned before his opportunity to be cooperative,” Kraus said.
The chief said the department normally investigates officer-involved shootings with two separate but concurrent processes: an internal affairs investigation and a criminal investigation, with the criminal investigation taking precedence.
Fort Worth police confirmed they had taken Dean into custody but did not comment further on the arrest. The chief has said more information about the criminal investigation will be provided Tuesday.
The charge against Dean came less than two weeks after former Dallas police Officer Amber Guyger was convicted of murder for shooting Botham Jean in his apartment last year. Guyger, who said she believed that she was at her apartment and that he was an intruder, was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Lee Merritt, an attorney for Jefferson’s family, said that the murder charge against Dean was a “step in the right direction” and that he hoped the case would be prosecuted appropriately.
He and the family called for an independent investigation into the shooting at a news conference earlier Monday.
Ashley Carr, Jefferson’s oldest sister, said her sister had recently moved home to care for her mother, who was in declining health and remained hospitalized Monday.
The night she was killed, Jefferson was simply enjoying life in her home, “where no one would have expected her life to be in harm’s way, especially not at the hands of a civil servant who had taken the oath to serve and protect,” Carr said.
Relatives and their attorney, Lee Merritt, called for the federal government to investigate the shooting, citing the department’s recent record of officer-involved shootings. Since June 1, Fort Worth officers have killed six people, including Jefferson. One other person was wounded.
Merritt said the department was in need of “serious systematic reform.”
“I want to go ahead and dispel the myth that this is somehow a one-off — that this was just a bad-luck incident from an otherwise sound department,” he said. “The Fort Worth Police Department is on pace to be one of the deadliest police departments in the United States.”
Carr, reading a statement from the family, asked officials to follow the example of her sister’s character.
She asked the city to “be honorable when it comes to narrating the memory of this beautiful soul.”
“To have integrity and bring the federal government in to investigate,” she continued. “To be committed to a swift and appropriate prosecution. To serve the entire community of Fort Worth by training your officers to execute responses to appropriate situations.”
Activist Cory Hughes, who also spoke at the news conference, called for the officer who shot Jefferson to be “charged like the criminal that he is.”
“This life mattered. This family matters, and we’re demanding justice,” he said. “We’re not going to wait. We demand justice now.”
The department has submitted the case for a possible review by the FBI, which will accept or reject it based on a decision whether civil rights violations occurred.
The department stripped Dean of his badge and firearm Sunday, the same day it served him with a written administrative complaint in relation to the shooting.
If Dean had been fired, it would have been for violations of Fort Worth police policy on use of force, de-escalation and professional conduct, Kraus said.