Cop Who Killed Fort Worth Woman Through Window Has Resigned

Aaron Dean would have been fired had he not, said Fort Worth's interim police chief
By Kate Seamons,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 14, 2019 2:15 PM CDT
Cop Who Killed Atatiana Jefferson Through Window Has Resigned
A bullet hole could be seen in the back window outside the Fort Worth home Monday, Oct. 14, 2019, where a 28-year-old black woman was shot to death by a white police officer on Saturday.   (AP Photo/Jake Bleiberg)

The Fort Worth officer who fired into a home's open window, killing Atatiana Jefferson, has resigned, per Interim Police Chief Ed Kraus. Kraus noted the department had intended to fire Aaron Dean today, but he resigned first. He added that criminal charges are possible and that he'll receive a "substantial update" on the matter by Tuesday, reports the AP. Dean, who has been with the department since April 2018, "no longer has the protections of state civil service law," Kraus said, per NBC News. The announcement came as Lee Merritt, an attorney for Jefferson's family, had this to say at a separate news conference: "Why this man is not in handcuffs is a source of continued agitation for this family and for this community."

Merritt described the slain 28-year-old as a 2014 graduate of Xavier University in New Orleans. She had a biology degree and a job in pharmaceutical equipment sales and was thinking of going to medical school. CNN reports the city's mayor, Betsy Price, apologized repeatedly "on behalf of the entire city of Fort Worth" for Jefferson's death, adding, "It's unacceptable. There is nothing that can justify what happened on Saturday morning. Nothing." (Jefferson was with her 8-year-old nephew when she was killed.)

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