Tex. cop shoot vic aimed at window: arrest warrant

The black woman fatally shot inside her Texas home by a white police officer had pointed a gun at a window when she and her 8-year-old nephew heard noises outside, according to an arrest warrant released Tuesday.

Former Fort Worth Officer Aaron Dean (inset left) was charged with murder Monday night, two days after he fired a shot through the window that killed 28-year-old Atatiana Jefferson. Dean resigned from the force hours before his arrest.

Jefferson’s nephew told investigators that his aunt retrieved her weapon when they feared there might be an intruder on the property.

“It makes sense that she would have a gun if she felt she was being threatened, or that there was someone in the backyard,” interim Police Chief Ed Kraus said during a press conference Tuesday.

There was no clear indication that Dean would have even been able to see the weapon through the glass, according to the arrest warrant. Family lawyer Lee Merritt said the window was covered by blinds, and that Dean never said “gun” before firing his own weapon.

“Why do people keep weapons in their homes? Well, maybe, when there’s someone prowling around in the back at 2 a.m. in the morning, you may need to arm yourself,” said Merritt. “It is only appropriate that Ms. Jefferson would have a weapon in that situation.”

Surveillance footage shows Dean approaching the door of the home where Jefferson (inset right) was caring for her nephew around 2:30 a.m. Saturday. He pushed through a gate into the fenced-off backyard and fired through the glass a splitsecond after shouting at Jefferson to show her hands. It’s believed that he did not identify himself as a police officer, and there is no evidence any of the responding officers knocked on the front door.

Jefferson, who had stayed up late playing video games with her nephew, “yelled out in pain” after she was shot through the window, according to TV station WFAA.

A neighbor had called the police after noticing Jefferson’s front door was open. The family said the door was left open because of the cool weather,.

Kraus told reporters the officers were responding to an “open structure” call, which is different from a welfare check.

“There’s more accountability to be had,” Merritt told WFAA. “Who sent the equivalent of a SWAT team to respond to a wellness call in a black community?”

Dean, 34, posted bond about four hours after his arrest. Kraus said the officer would have been fired if he had not resigned, and emphasized Tuesday there was “absolutely no excuse for the shooting.”

Merritt said the family “needs to see this through to a vigorous prosecution and appropriate sentencing” and that “the city of Fort Worth has much work to do to reform a brutal culture of policing.”

Five of the nine officer-involved shootings in Fort Worth this year have targeted African-Americans, according to data obtained by The Associated Press. Six of the nine shootings have resulted in death.

With News Wire Services