(AP) — An ex Texas cop was convicted of manslaughter Thursday for fatally shooting a Black woman through a rear window of her home.
Jurors also considered a murder charge against Aaron Dean but instead convicted him of manslaughter in the 2019 death of Atatiana Jefferson, 28.
Dean, 38, faces up to 20 years in prison on the manslaughter conviction. He had faced up to life in prison if convicted of murder.
Dean shot Jefferson on Oct. 12, 2019, after a neighbor called a nonemergency police line to report that the front door to Jefferson’s home was open. She had been playing video games that night with her nephew & left the doors open to vent smoke from hamburgers the boy burned.
Police body camera footage showed that Dean & a 2nd officer who responded to the call didn’t identify themselves as cops at the house. Dean & Officer Carol Darch testified that they thought the house might have been burglarized & quietly moved into the fenced-off backyard looking for signs of forced entry.
Dean fired a single shot through the window a split-second after shouting at Jefferson, who was inside, to show her hands.
Dean testified that he had no choice but to shoot when he saw Jefferson pointing the barrel of a gun directly at him. But under questioning from prosecutors he acknowledged numerous errors, repeatedly conceding that actions he took before & after the shooting were “more bad police work.”
Darch testified that he never mentioned seeing a gun before he pulled the trigger & didn’t say anything about the weapon as they rushed in to search the house.
Dean acknowledged on the witness stand that he only said something about the gun after seeing it on the floor inside the house & that he never gave Jefferson first aid.
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