*Things are moving fast in the case of now-former (white) Ft. Worth police officer Aaron Dean who fatally wounded Atatiana Jefferson, an unarmed 28-year-old (black) woman in her own bedroom last Saturday.
Dean was arrested for Jefferson’s murder on Monday evening. The Fort Worth Police Department tweeted out Aaron Dean’s mugshot at 8.16pm.
“Aaron Dean was arrested by Fort Worth Police on Oct. 14. Dean has been charged with murder of Atatiana Jefferson. Dean is in the Tarrant County Jail,” the department tweeted.
Dean’s bond has been set at $200,000, according to jail records.
#UPDATE
Aaron Dean was arrested by Fort Worth Police
on Oct. 14. Dean has been charged with
murder of Atatiana Jefferson. Dean is in
the Tarrant County Jail.Interim @chiefkraus will schedule a News
Conference for Oct. 15 at Bob Bolen. That time has not been determined yet. pic.twitter.com/eRZfMWtgM4— Fort Worth Police (@fortworthpd) October 15, 2019
Expected is a news conference tomorrow being helmed by interim Fort Worth police chief Ed Kraus, the department stated.
S. Lee Merritt, the attorney for Jefferson’s family says they are ‘relieved’ that Dean has been jailed on a murder charge.
According to S. Lee Merritt, the Jefferson family’s attorney, they are “relieved” that Dean is being held on a murder charge.
Merritt added that the family “needs to see this through to a vigorous prosecution and appropriate sentencing.”
He also said that “the city of Fort Worth has much work to do to reform a brutal culture of policing.”
Even though Dean is no longer a peace-officer and has yet to hire an attorney, his legal bills will be handled by Texas’ largest police union, the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas, according to Charley Wilkison, the group’s executive director, reports the Daily Mail.
At a press conference on Monday, Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price called Atatiana’s killing unjustified.
“I’m so sorry. On behalf of the entire city of Fort Worth, I’m sorry,’ Price said. ‘To Atatiana’s family, it’s unacceptable. There is nothing that can justify what happened on Saturday morning. Nothing.”
As we reported earlier, Dean and another officer were called to Atatiana Jefferson’s home by a neighbor who noticed that the door was open at around 2.30am Saturday.
Atatiana was playing video games with her eight-year-old nephew when they heard a noise outside and she got up to investigate, assuming it was a prowler.
Body camera footage released by the Fort Worth Police Department shows Dean shining a flashlight into the back side home as Atatiana approached the bedroom window.
“Put your hands up! Show me your hands!” he shouts through the window with his gun drawn.
A split-second later, the officer fired a single shot, killing Atatiana in front of her nephew.
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