FORT WORTH, Texas — Atatiana Jefferson was holding a gun but never raised it to point at the white police officer who fatally shot her through a rear window of her Texas home, the Black woman’s 11-year-old nephew testified at the officer’s murder trial Monday. The officer’s defence attorney said the boy said otherwise immediately after the shooting.
The boy’s testimony touched on an issue at the heart of the long-delayed case charging Aaron Dean with Jefferson’s killing: whether the Fort Worth officer saw Jefferson’s gun before he shot her.
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Dean quit and was charged with murder two days after killing the 28-year-old while responding to a call about an open front door in October 2019.
Body-camera footage showed that neither Dean nor the other responding officer identified themselves as police at the house. Dean’s attorney contended the officer saw through the window that Jefferson was pointing the gun at him. Prosecutors said evidence would show otherwise.
That night, Jefferson was playing video games with her nephew, Zion Carr, who told a court Monday that his aunt pulled out a gun after hearing suspicious noises behind the house. Under questioning Carr, then 8, said the gun was only ever pointed “down” but he acknowledged not remembering parts of what happened.
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On cross-examination, Dean’s defence said Carr told a child case worker during a recorded interview after the shooting that Jefferson had raised the gun. The boy denied this.
In 2019, the case was unusual for the relative speed with which, amid public outrage, the Fort Worth Police Department released the video and arrested Dean. Since then, his case has been repeatedly postponed amid lawyerly wrangling, the terminal illness of his lead attorney and the COVID-19 pandemic.
By contrast, former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin went on trial and was convicted of murdering George Floyd more than 1 1/2 years ago. Floyd was killed seven months after Jefferson, in a case that sparked global protests over racial injustice.
Dean, who has pleaded not guilty, has been free on $200,000 bond. Now 38, he is charged with killing Jefferson on Oct. 12, 2019, after a neighbour called a nonemergency police line to report that the front door to Jefferson’s home was open.
Bodycam video showed Dean approaching the door of the home where Jefferson was caring for her nephew. He then walked around the side of the house, pushed through a gate into the fenced-off backyard and fired through the glass a split-second after shouting at Jefferson, who was inside, to show her hands.
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Assistant District Attorney Ashlea Deener said during opening statements Monday that Jefferson believed Dean and his fellow officer were intruders. Dean opened fire without giving her time to comply with commands and without ever saying he saw a gun, Deener said, adding “the evidence will support, he did not see the gun in her hands.”
The home’s front and side doors were open to vent smoke from hamburgers Jefferson was cooking with her nephew, Deener said. Carr testified that he burned the burgers.
Defence attorney Miles Brissette countered that the officers were following protocol in treating the call as a potential burglary. He said the “living room looked like it’s been ransacked” and they were looking for signs of forced entry.
Before opening fire, Brissette said, Dean saw a silhouette in the window of a person with a gun and a green laser sight pointed at him. He said the evidence would show the officer’s actions were reasonable.
“That gun was relevant,” Brissette said. “This is a tragic accident.”
Jefferson was considering a career in medicine and moved into her mother’s home months before the shooting there to help as the older woman’s health declined.
Her killing shattered the trust police had been trying to build with communities of colour in Fort Worth, a city of 935,000 about 30 miles (50 kilometres) west of Dallas that has long had complaints of racially unequal policing and excessive force.
The shooting drew swift rebuke from the city’s then-police chief and Republican mayor, who at the time called the circumstances “truly unthinkable” and said Jefferson having a gun was “irrelevant.”
Dean’s legal team used those comments in unsuccessful attempts to move the case from Fort Worth, claiming news media attention and statements from public officials would bias the jury pool. District Judge George Gallagher rejected their request again Monday before the jury entered the overflowing courtroom.
As jury selection was set to start last week, Dean’s defence attorney, Jim Lane, died. After years of delays, Gallagher moved forward anyway and, following days of questioning potential jurors, a panel of 12 jurors and two alternates was selected Friday. Eight were men, six women and none of them appeared to be Black.
The opening day of Dean’s trial ended before noon so participants could attend Lane’s funeral.
— Associated Press reporter Jamie Stengle in Dallas contributed to this report.