A former Texas police officer has testified in his murder trial that he made mistakes but fatally shot a Black woman through a rear window of her home in 2019 moments after he saw the woman pointing a handgun at him.
Former Fort Worth Police Officer Aaron Dean looks towards his attorneys during the second day of his murder trial on Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2022, in Fort Worth, Texas. Dean is accused of fatally shooting Atatiana Jefferson in 2019 during a welfare check.
“I was looking right down the barrel of the gun and when I saw the barrel of that gun pointed at me, I fired a single shot from my duty weapon,” Dean said on the witness stand. Prosecutors contend Dean didn’t see the gun. The Fort Worth Police Department released body-camera video and arrested Dean on a murder charge within days of the Oct. 12, 2019, shooting. He'd completed the police academy the year before and quit the force without speaking to investigators.
Bodycam footage showed that Dean and a second officer who responded to the call didn’t identify themselves as police at the house. Officer Carol Darch testified last week that she and Dean thought the house might have been burglarized and quietly moved into the fenced-off backyard, guns drawn, looking for signs of forced entry.
“When my vision cleared, then I observed the person that we now know is Miss Jefferson,” he said. “I heard her scream and then saw her fall."
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