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Jury sentences Aaron Dean to nearly 12 years in prison for fatal shooting of Atatiana Jefferson
KERA-TV Fort Worth ^ | KERA | By Miranda Suarez Published December 20, 2022 at 2:24 PM CST

Posted on 12/21/2022 7:02:45 AM PST by Red Badger

Dean was convicted of manslaughter for shooting and killing Atatiana Jefferson in her home in 2019. He was on duty as a police officer at the time.

Former Fort Worth police officer Aaron Dean has been sentenced to 11 years, 10 months and 12 days in prison for the manslaughter of Atatiana Jefferson.

Dean shot Jefferson through her bedroom window while responding to a call about open doors at her home. The last part of his sentence resonates with the date of that call: Oct. 12, 2019.

If sentenced to 10 years or less, Dean would have been eligible for probation. He will be eligible for parole after he's served half his sentence.

The jury deliberated Dean's sentence over two days. After the judge announced the sentence on Tuesday, Jefferson's family members took the stand to address Dean themselves.

Ashley Carr, Jefferson's sister, told Dean she never looked forward to talking to him. She felt a tinge of jealousy seeing his family there with him, she said.

"I have loathed the idea of you with your family during the holiday seasons for the last three years. Today, I have just arrived at pity," she said.

Dean will never "truly repent," Carr said.

"I pity you for your ignorance. You do not know enough to be ashamed," she said.

(Excerpt) Read more at keranews.org ...


TOPICS: History; Local News; Military/Veterans; Society
KEYWORDS: banglist; donutwatch; ftworth; police; texas
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1 posted on 12/21/2022 7:02:45 AM PST by Red Badger
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To: Red Badger

This was a bad shoot without a doubt. You never shoot someone IN THEIR OWN HOME without warning.

But is was not race-related... at all. So that notion needs to be squashed.


2 posted on 12/21/2022 7:13:21 AM PST by fwdude (Society has been fully polarized now, and you have to decide on which pole you want to be found.)
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To: Red Badger

Yep. Unless a cop has 4 holes in him he can’t really be sure that his life is in danger and even then, it might just be an accident so in any and all cases, cops have no reasonable case for self-defense.

These decisions just keep getting worse and worse. In Dean’s case even HIS attorneys didn’t understand the concept of self-defense. If you’re a cop, just get out now. If you decide to stick around then it’s only a matter of time before they find a reason to hang you by the boys.


3 posted on 12/21/2022 7:16:19 AM PST by Tucsonican
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To: Tucsonican

Good people stopped wanting to be cops years ago, they hire whoever they can get nowadays.

(Yeah yeah, I know there are exceptions, but for the most part it’s true)


4 posted on 12/21/2022 7:18:26 AM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: Red Badger

“Every life matters. Especially Black lives,” Nettles said.“

“Dean testified during trial he thought Jefferson’s house was being burglarized. Dean and his partner went into Jefferson’s backyard, saw Jefferson holding a gun through the window and shot in self-defense, he said.

The prosecution argued there’s no evidence Dean saw that gun, and Jefferson had the right to pick up a gun and defend her home.”

So Dean testified that he saw Jefferson holding a gun. The prosecution agued there was no evidence Dean “saw” the gun that Jefferson had and had the right to pick up and defend her home.

So, there’s no proof that Dean saw Jefferson holding the gun, except the fact that Jefferson was holding the gun that she had the right to pick up?

And, Dean gets twelve years for not being able prove he saw what he saw? Even though the prosecution validated what Dean said he saw by their own statements?

It’s more likely, he was convicted for shooting a black person while being white. Maybe 911 centers should start clarifying the race of the callers so they can dispatch police officers of the appropriate race.

Just to be safe . . .


5 posted on 12/21/2022 7:19:56 AM PST by MCSETots
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To: fwdude
This was a bad shoot without a doubt.

The police officer should always wait until he sees the flash of a gun pointed at him before returning fire. Don't you agree? /sarc
6 posted on 12/21/2022 7:22:15 AM PST by Dan in Wichita
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To: Red Badger

Dean’s actions met the applicable elements of self defense, but he had incompetent lawyers and an ignorant judge who permitted irrelevant testimony and misread the law to the jury. The jury acquitted Dean of murder, and by extension, he also should have been not guilty of manslaughter.

Dean might be an asshole, but he should be a free man right now. Hopefully he has competent representation on appeal. The judge’s errors should be sufficient for an overturning of the conviction.


7 posted on 12/21/2022 7:22:33 AM PST by twister881
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To: Tucsonican

Oh, shut up.

With people like you, cops are never at fault. A cop could roll up to a daycare center and shoot every kid there because one of the kids was holding toy nerf gun, and nevermind that the gun was orange, and you would be cool with it.

Moron.


8 posted on 12/21/2022 7:23:01 AM PST by Four of Six
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To: MCSETots

Works for me…. Blacks deal with blacks and whites deal with whites. How about we take that concept all the way to total cultural, political and social separation.


9 posted on 12/21/2022 7:27:48 AM PST by Levy78 (Reject modernity, embrace tradition. )
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To: fwdude

> This was a bad shoot without a doubt. <

I gotta agree. That woman did absolutely nothing wrong. In fact, she did exactly what most of us here would have done: she grabbed a weapon to defend herself and her family.

Did the cop feel threatened? I suppose so. But a professional should be trained to rapidly assess a threat, even when under pressure. Shoot first and ask questions later shouldn’t be a reflexive response.

I also wonder why the cop just didn’t quickly move away from the window, and out of the line of sight of whomever was inside the house. After all, this wasn’t high noon on the streets of Dodge City.


10 posted on 12/21/2022 7:49:57 AM PST by Leaning Right (The steal is real.)
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To: Tucsonican
I could care less about Deans Feelings or if he "Felt" his life was in danger.

Dean KNEW his voluntarily assumed responsibilities.

If he didn't want to be responsible, he shouldn't have become a Police Officer.

He was negligent in his duties, he has to pay the price.

A Badge is not a license to kill, it is a Shield to be put between a citizen and an outside threat to that citizen.

11 posted on 12/21/2022 8:00:25 AM PST by Navy Patriot (Celebrate Decivilization)
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To: Red Badger
The local clown, Nuttles, said "all lives matter. Especially Black lives." Why is that? Are they going snail darter and spotted owl extinct?
12 posted on 12/21/2022 8:01:05 AM PST by FlingWingFlyer (Hey Amerika! The whole world is watching and laughing their asses off. )
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To: Red Badger

A thug with a badge goes to jail where they belong.

Too bad, so sad.

Bad shoot should get someone the rest of their life in general pop.


13 posted on 12/21/2022 8:03:45 AM PST by Republican in occupied CA (I will not give up on my native State! Here I was born, here I fight and die!!)
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To: Leaning Right

“Did the cop feel threatened?”

You should probably feel threatened if you are sneaking around in someone’s backyard in the middle of the night in the USA.


14 posted on 12/21/2022 8:06:52 AM PST by Boogieman
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To: MCSETots

Dean’s lawyers just sucked and the judge let the prosecutor make blatantly false statements about the justification for self-defense. Somehow or other it seems that the legal system has decided that if one person has a right to self-defense then the other does not and THAT is what got Dean convicted.

The conviction and sentence are absurd, an absolute travesty but, as we see on this thread, a whole bunch of people that hate cops just love this kind of thing and, yes, race plays a HUGE role in these decisions.


15 posted on 12/21/2022 8:34:58 AM PST by Tucsonican
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To: Red Badger

Good, they should have buried him under the prison.


16 posted on 12/21/2022 8:46:24 AM PST by rednesss (fascism is the union,marriage,merger or fusion of corporate economic power with governmental power )
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To: Four of Six; Tucsonican

Welcome to Free Republic.

You’ll find FReepers more hospitable if you do not tell them to shut up or call them morons.


17 posted on 12/21/2022 9:04:23 AM PST by Churchillspirit (Pray for President Trump)
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To: Red Badger

Any white person who becomes a cop is a fool. Esepcially trying to police black neighborhoods. Leave blacks to their own devices. They created the living conditions in their neighborhoods.


18 posted on 12/21/2022 9:40:35 AM PST by Organic Panic (Democrats. Memories as short as Joe Biden's eyes)
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To: Red Badger

The family of the victim continually tried to frame this as an incident where the officer maliciously intended to murder her in cold blood. It’s a shame that she died. It was likely a bad shoot. Those things being said, I don’t believe for a second that the officer wanted her dead.


19 posted on 12/21/2022 10:04:56 AM PST by gop4lyf (Gay marriage is neither. Democrats are the party of sore losers and pedophiles.)
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To: Red Badger

Title - Jury Sentences Dean...

I thought the Judge did the sentencing.


20 posted on 12/21/2022 10:08:04 AM PST by Scrambler Bob
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