FORT WORTH, Texas — Former Fort Worth police Officer Aaron Dean told a Tarrant County jury Monday morning he saw a gun before he shot and killed a Black woman in her mother’s home more than three years ago.
Dean, who is white, killed 28-year-old Atatiana Jefferson when he shot once into a window on Oct. 12, 2019, while responding to a call. One of the central issues for jurors is whether Dean saw Jefferson’s gun before he pulled the trigger. She grabbed the gun after hearing a noise in her backyard, according to testimony last week. Dean and a fellow officer did not identify themselves as police officers when they arrived at the home.
“I did see that weapon pointed at me,” Dean pleaded to jurors. “The gun was pointed directly at me.”
Jefferson was playing video games with her 8-year-old nephew when a concerned neighbor called a nonemergency police line because two doors to the home were open about 2:30 a.m. The doors were open, her nephew, now 11, testified last week because they burned hamburgers and were airing out the smoke.
Dean was on the witness stand for about four hours Monday. Dean told jurors while being questioned by his attorneys they need “to hear from me and hear the truth.” Dean looked at the jury throughout his testimony and seemed to make eye contact with some. He was emotional at times and cried. Jurors watched him as he spoke and most took notes.
But Dean’s demeanor became more demure under prosecutors’ questioning. His gaze turned away from the jury and his eyes often shifted toward his lawyers, parents and sister, prompting Tarrant County prosecutor Dale Smith to question what he was looking at. Dean said his lawyers and then added he was trying to speak to the full room.
Prosecutors called 10 witnesses over three days last week. Prosecutors didn’t call any use-of-force experts to offer opinions about whether Dean’s shooting was justified or Jefferson’s right to defend herself. They however did raise such issues while questioning Dean.
Prosecutors said in opening arguments Dean did not act in self defense and should not have fired into the window. Court had been in recess since Wednesday to accommodate defense witnesses’ schedules.
Dean’s partner that night testified last week she believed the house was burglarized. Dean testified he also saw damage to one of the doors and a screwdriver nearby.
“The street was dark,” Dean told jurors. “I could see the door open and light spilling out of that front door. ... I remember it being quiet. I really don’t remember hearing much of anything.”
He added: “Objects were just strewn all over the floor. It looked ransacked, it was a mess.”
Dean said he didn’t think the homeowners were home when he decided to walk around the house and then he used his handheld flashlight to push open a gate to the backyard. He noticed a window and air conditioning unit to the left and said he leaned over to see if the window had been jimmied. He said he did not have his gun drawn when he walked through the gate.
“As I looked through that window, low in the window, I observed a person — couldn’t tell Black, white, male, female,” he said. “The upper arms were moving like someone was reaching for something or grasping.”
He then told jurors: “I thought we had a burglar, so I stepped back, straightened up and drew my weapon and then pointed it toward the figure. I couldn’t see that person’s hands. ... I drew my weapon intending to tell that person to show me their hands.”
He choked back emotions and his voice quivered as he described the seconds between yelling at Jefferson through the window and firing the lethal shot.
“I was shouting at this time, shouting commands, ‘Put up your hands, show me your hands, show me your hands,’” he said. “And as I started to get that second phrase out, ‘Show me your hands,’ I saw the silhouette, I was looking right down the barrel of a gun. And when I saw that barrel of that gun pointed at me, I fired a single shot from my duty weapon.
“Then I observed the person we now know is Miss Jefferson. I heard her scream and saw her fall like this,” he said, making a cascading gesture with his hands. “I knew I’d shot that person.”
Dean’s lawyers said in opening statements last week that Dean saw a green laser on Jefferson’s gun. They said he followed his police training and met deadly force with deadly force. Defense lawyers called Jefferson’s death a “tragic accident.” Dean can be heard in body-camera footage exhaling with gusto when he found Jefferson’s gun and green laser attachment in her bedroom. He told jurors he realized “how close we came to dying.”
Dean demonstrated what he saw Jefferson do through the window while being questioned by Smith: He folded over, bent at the hips, then stood upright and pretended to hold a gun up to his chest.
Dean said Jefferson stood up as the officer was yelling out commands. But Smith said Dean couldn’t tell if her arms were extending out or if the gun was in a raised position ready to fire. Dean insisted he saw the barrel of the gun pointed at him.
“You decided to shoot her once you saw the barrel of the gun?” Smith asked. Dean agreed.
“Once you saw the barrel of the gun you decided to pull the trigger and take who was on the other side of that window’s life?” Smith pressed. Dean timidly answered, “Yes.”
Dean said he could only see the gun and the silhouette’s upper torso. He said while being questioned by prosecutors he couldn’t see anything behind the figure. Lawyers have repeatedly said the officers did not announce themselves as police officers when they arrived at the home. Smith implied that if Dean announced himself Jefferson might still be alive.
Dean and his partner both testified they did not identify themselves in case a burglar was inside and that police policies did not require they announce their presence at an “open structure” call. However, Smith while questioning Dean implied that using his flashlight to scan the backyard would have alerted anyone in the home that they were outside. Smith said Dean was being “cavalier” about being in a private citizen’s backyard.
Prosecutors said last week during open statements that Dean did not follow proper police procedures for responding to an open structure call. On the witness stand, Smith repeatedly questioned whether Dean thought what he did was good or bad police work and asked to grade himself. Dean said “there’s probably things I could have done better.”
Smith showed Dean a police report outside the presence of the jury from another open structure call he responded to in 2019. Dean recalled he announced his presence during that call.
“Everything you did in the early morning hours of Oct. 12, 2019, was a quick look,” Smith said. “You didn’t really follow any rules or regulations, did you?”
Dean replied the officers were inspecting the structure. Dean said he was “apprehensive and cautious” responding to the call when Smith asked if he was “gung-ho.”
Smith pressed about Dean’s decisions up until he went into the backyard.
“I think I did a fine job,” Dean said, which drew reactions from spectators in the gallery. Observers looked at each other and one woman quietly scoffed.
Smith said it was against Dean’s training to shoot without knowing what was behind Jefferson. Dean said he “took a well-aimed shot” but agreed that he went against his training when he fired his weapon.
Carol Darch, Dean’s partner on the call, said he didn’t say he saw a gun before firing his weapon or as the cops ran inside the house after he shot Jefferson. Smith pressed Dean on why he didn’t alert Darch to a threat or move outside of the window’s sight line. Smith asked whether that was “good police work,” which Dean responded, “No.”
Prosecutors said last week and Dean’s body-camera footage shows he did not attend to Jefferson’s wound once inside. A medical examiner said last week the bullet pierced Jefferson’s heart.
“I get to that back bedroom and off to my right I see a kid,” Dean said. Zion Carr, Jefferson’s nephew, was in the room when she was shot. “And I’m thinking ‘who brings a kid to a burglary, what is going on?’ I see a dog and at that point I’m just like ... ‘Shut up and work, shut up and work, get the weapon, render aid to her, get the weapon, render aid to the person.’”
Defense lawyers said Dean did not have a trauma medical kit at the time of the shooting.
Dean initially said “a while” lapsed before he gave CPR to Jefferson, but when questioned by Smith, he said he never gave CPR to her. He said he was “about to” when more officers arrived. Dean said he rolled Jefferson over and pressed an afghan on her chest.
Jefferson’s brother, Adarius Carr, shifted in his seat as Dean testified. Carr frequently reached for Life Savers from a bag at his feet and chewed on the candies. Amber Carr, Zion’s mother, was absent. Amber, who has struggled with health ailments, wasn’t feeling well Monday morning, relatives said. Adarius Carr and his other sister, Ashley Carr, passed notes to each other while Dean testified.
Zion told a child forensic interviewer the morning of the shooting that Jefferson pointed a gun toward the window. But on the stand, Zion said Jefferson kept the gun at her side. Zion also told the interviewer he heard someone yell outside the window and thought he saw a police badge. But on the stand, Zion insisted he didn’t hear or see anything outside. Defense lawyers later implied to the judge they believe Zion was coached to give a different account of the shooting.
Dean killing Jefferson sparked nationwide outrage and became a watershed moment previewing 2020′s widespread social justice protests. Although some of the 12 jurors and two alternates are people of color, none are Black.
Dean faces up to life in prison if convicted of murder. Before Dean’s arrest, no Tarrant County officer had ever faced a murder charge, the district attorney’s office said at the time.
Jefferson has been described by family as a doting aunt and aspiring doctor who grew up in Dallas’ Oak Cliff and graduated from Xavier University of Louisiana. She’d moved into the home in the 1200 block of East Allen Avenue to care for her ailing mother and Zion, whose mother also was in poor health.
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