Oct.14, 2019
Cop Who Shot and Killed Black Woman in Her Home Resigns
Atatiana Koquice Jefferson
Aaron Dean
Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from TheNorthStarNewsToday.com
(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Aaron Dean, a Fort Worth, Texas, police officer who shot to death a Black woman during what was supposed to be a wellness check, has resigned from the police department.
(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Aaron Dean, a Fort Worth, Texas, police officer who shot to death a Black woman during what was supposed to be a wellness check, has resigned from the police department.
Interim Fort Worth police chief Ed Kraus named Dean and announced his resignation this morning during a news conference.
Dean shot to death Atatiana Koquice Jefferson, 28, on Saturday by firing a gun through the bedroom window of her mother’s home. Jefferson died at the scene. Kraus said he intended to fire Dean, but he submitted his resignation.
Dean faces criminal charges as well as possible civil rights violations and “no longer has the protections of state civil service law,” Kraus said.
The department had placed Dean on administrative leave following the shooting. Dean had been a member of the Fort Worth police department since April 2018.
Dean never identified himself as a police officer and he never knocked on Jefferson’s door to learn if she was okay, Kraus said.
Jefferson was playing video games with her nephew when the deadly shooting occurred. A neighbor called the police to make a wellness check because the front door was open.
Lee Merritt, the attorney for the Jefferson family, said the door was left open to cool down the house. Jefferson graduated from Xavier University and was planning to apply for medical school.