Former Police Officer Who Shot Atatiana Jefferson in Her Own Home Is Indicted for Her Murder
Aaron York Dean, the police officer who was accused of fatally shooting Atatiana Jefferson in her own home, has been indicted for her murder.
The 35-year-old was indicted Friday by a grand jury in Tarrant County, CNN, NBC News and local station WFAA reports.
S. Lee Merritt, an attorney for the Jefferson family, tweeted that while they are relieved with the indictment, they “remain cautious that a conviction and appropriate sentence is still a long way away.”
“We need to see this through to a vigorous prosecution & appropriate sentencing,” the attorney wrote in a post on Facebook. “The City of Fort Worth has much work to do to reform a brutal culture of policing.”
Jim Lane, the attorney for Dean, did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
Dean was arrested and charged with the murder of Jefferson, 28, on Oct. 14 hours after resigning from his position as a Fort Worth police officer, according to a statement his former department.
Jefferson was killed on Oct. 12 when Fort Worth police responded to an “open structure call” in the 1200 block of E. Allen Avenue at around 2:30 a.m. A neighbor called authorities to report that Jefferson’s front door was open.
Jefferson, a pre-med graduate of Xavier University, had been playing video games with her 8-year-old nephew when the call was made.
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Body-camera footage, released by the police and shared by multiple media outlets, showed two officers walking around the side of the house as one officer approached a closed first-floor window with a flashlight. After raising his gun, the officer screamed, “Put your hands up! Show me your hands!”
The officer, later identified as Dean, allegedly never identified himself as police before firing.
Dean, who had been with Fort Worth Police Department since April 2018, was originally placed on administrative leave before his resignation.
In a GoFundMe page created by Merritt, Jefferson was described as a “beautiful” and “peaceful” woman who “was very close to her family.”
“She worked in pharmaceutical equipment sales. Her mom had recently gotten very sick, so she was home taking care of the house and loving her life,” the description read. “There was no reason for her to be murdered. None. We must have justice.”
Though the campaign was originally set up to cover “funeral cost and other expenses associated with this tragedy,” former Dallas Mavericks star Harrison Barnes and Philadelphia Eagles player Malik Jackson stepped forward to pay for the service.
In November, a spokesperson for the family said Jefferson’s father Marquis A. Jefferson died of cardiac arrest despite having no history of prior illness.
“It’s just sad because of grief. I don’t know what else to say,” the family’s representative Bruce Carter told NBC Dallas. “Less than a month ago, he was working at El Centro, mentoring kids twice a week. He just couldn’t get back from what happened with his daughter.”
