Texas officer convicted in killing of Atatiana Jefferson

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — A former Texas police officer was convicted of manslaughter Thursday for fatally shooting Atatiana Jefferson through a rear window of her home in 2019, a rare conviction of an officer for killing someone who was also armed with a gun.

Jurors were also considering a murder charge against Aaron Dean but instead convicted him of manslaughter. The conviction comes more than three years after the white Fort Worth officer shot the 28-year-old Black woman while responding to a call about an open front door.

Dean, 38, faces up to 20 years in prison on the manslaughter conviction. The sentencing phase of his trial is set to begin Friday. Dean had faced up to life in prison if convicted of murder.

The Tarrant County jury deliberated for more than 13 hours of deliberation over two days before returning the verdict. The primary dispute during the six days of testimony and arguments was whether Dean knew Jefferson was armed when he shot her. Dean testified that he saw her weapon; prosecutors alleged the evidence showed otherwise.

Lesa Pamplin, an attorney and friend of the Jefferson family, said she was glad that jurors took their time.

“These folks gave it a good, hard look at the evidence and they didn’t rush it,” Pamplin said.

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 and it emerged at trial that they left the doors open to vent smoke from hamburgers the boy burned.

The case was unusual for the relative speed with which, amid public outrage, the Fort Worth Police Department released video of the shooting and arrested Dean. He’d completed the police academy the year before and quit the...