Texas Cop Sentenced To More Than 11 Years In Jail For Killing A Woman During A Welfare Check

It’s not often a cop gets criminally charged for killing someone. In most cases, cops are cleared of wrongdoing. Even when they aren’t, their employers and overseers aren’t interested in establishing deterrents to bad police behavior or holding bad cops accountable for their wrongdoing.

There are notable exceptions, of course. The most recent notable case would be that of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who was convicted of murder for kneeling on the neck of unarmed black man George Floyd for more than nine minutes, killing him over an alleged attempt to pass a fake $20 bill. Shortly after that, Alabama police officer William Darby was convicted of murder for killing a suicidal man less than 11 seconds after entering the man’s house.

There’s a phrase I use in cases like the latter: helping someone to death. That’s what cops do in far too many cases involving welfare checks, mental health emergencies, or suicidal people. Cops aren’t trained to help. They’re trained to hurt. And that tends to result in the deaths of those they were sent to aid.

The killings and deaths are common. What’s uncommon is a cop being held accountable for their actions. But that has happened in this tragic case. As Courthouse News Service reports, Fort Worth (TX) police officer Aaron Dean (who quit before being fired) has been sentenced to prison for killing an innocent woman within seconds of encountering her.

A Texas jury sentenced former Fort Worth police officer Aaron Dean to nearly 12 years in state prison Tuesday for killing a Black woman through her window after not identifying himself as police during a requested welfare check.

A Tarrant County jury deliberated for nearly two full days before sentencing Dean, 38, of Arlington, to 11 years, 10 months and 12 days. He faced between two and 20 years in state prison. The decision came five days after jurors convicted Dean of manslaughter for shooting Atatiana Jefferson, 28, on Oct. 12, 2019.

Atatiana Jefferson was killed for the non-crimes of (1) being in her own home, and (2) possessing a firearm. Both of these acts are legal. What clearly wasn’t legal — at least according to this jury verdict — were Officer Dean’s actions.

Officer Dean was supposedly performing a welfare check in response to a call to police dispatch. A neighbor of Jefferson’s called the cops on a non-emergency line, expressing their concern that lights were on and doors were open at Jefferson’s residence at 2 in the morning.

Officer Dean, rather than approaching the front door of Jefferson’s residence, decided to creep around to the back yard. He never announced his presence. He never made Jefferson aware he was near her home. He simply crept around in the dark until his activities provoked a response from Jefferson. She heard noises in her backyard. And, apparently fearing for her own safety, she grabbed her handgun and approached her back window.

The officer’s actions were captured by his body camera. Jefferson had every right to reside in her own home and hold her legally-owned weapon while investigating the source of mysterious noises outside of her house at 2 in the morning.

Officer Dean felt otherwise. He felt his unannounced presence was all the permission he needed to shoot and kill Jefferson, firing through her back window within two seconds of seeing her. Here’s the body cam video, which unfortunately contains the Fort Worth PD’s overemphasis on the weapon Jefferson legally carried in her own home.

From 0:00-1:33, Officer Dean moves around the outside of the house. From 1:34-1:35, he shouts at, shoots, and kills Atatiana Jefferson. This is not a typo. Officer Dean shouted “Put your hands up! Show me your hands!” and fired a shot through the window before his second sentence was completed. He gave Jefferson no chance to comply.

The PD framed this as Jefferson being the “perceived threat” Officer Dean responded to by shooting. But how in all that is fucking holy can someone moving around in their own home be considered a threat? The call Officer Dean responded to came in on a non-emergency line. This was supposed to be a welfare check on the home’s residents. Dean had no reason to perceive anyone as a threat. His decision to present himself as a threat by acting like a burglar provoked the actions he chose to view as “threatening.” He did everything wrong. Because of that, an innocent woman who was babysitting her 8-year-old nephew, was killed. And Officer Dean rendered no aid while Jefferson bled out in her own living room, instead appearing to express relief that he had found a handgun near her body.

Fortunately, the jury found Dean guilty of manslaughter. The jury declined to find the officer guilty of murder. But at least it understood the assignment. This may not have been murder. But, even so, there was no reason to allow Dean to walk away from this horrific abuse of his police powers.

Dean would have been eligible to serve only probation if jurors had sentenced him to less than 10 years in prison.

That’s why they handed down an 11-year sentence. Officer Dean may not be a murderer. But he was so criminally negligent in his handling of this welfare check he should not be allowed to roam free for the next decade while waiting for his sentence to roll off the books. Dean is going to prison. And hopefully his sentence will serve as a deterrent to other officers who think going off-script is the best way to handle situations that don’t require out-of-the-box thinking. That sort of thing just gets innocent people killed.