Opening arguments are underway in the trial of former Fort Worth, Texas, police officer Aaron Dean.

The 38-year-old is charged with murder for shooting 28-year-old Atatiana Jefferson in 2019 just moments after beginning a non-emergency welfare check at her home.

The case, involving a white officer and a Black victim, occurred seven months before the police killing of George Floyd galvanised nationwide racial justice protests.

It touches on many of the same issues that would later bring millions of Americans into the street in 2020: aggressive police use of force; strained dynamics between white officers and communities of colour; and the difficult question of how best to reform police departments in America.

The shooting

Police were called for a welfare check at 2.23am on 12 October, 2019, on a non-emergency line, after a neighbour noticed Jefferson’s front door was open uncharacteristically for that time of morning.

At the time, Jefferson was playing video games with her eight-year-old nephew, Zion, and had opened the doors to vent smoke from hamburgers she was cooking.

Without knocking at the door, turning on their police lights, or otherwise announcing themselves, Dean approached the outside of the home, investigating parked cars and eventually letting himself into the backyard through a gate.

There, according to body camera footage, Dean saw Jefferson standing at the back window, and yelled, “Put your hands up, show me your hands!” before firing a shot through the window moments later.

The officer did not identify himself as a policeman.

Zion told a forensic investigator trained to work with children that his aunt had heard suspicious noises in the yard, picked up her gun, and went to investigate. Dean claims he saw the silhouette of Jefferson holding a gun, with the beam of a green laser sight pointing outside, before he shot.

Who was Atatiana Jefferson?

According to family members, Jefferson, who went by the nickname “Tay” to those close to her, was a loving relative with big dreams about pursuing a career in medicine.

“She was part of the first generation of people in my family to go to college,” her sister Ashley Carr told The New York Times. “There were plenty of days of struggling, plenty of days of eating ramen noodles for dinner. But that wasn’t a deterrent for her.”

Just before the shooting, Jefferson put these career ambitions on hold and moved from Dallas to Fort Worth to care for her ailing mother.

“Whoever she really cared for, she went all in for it — people and animals,” Ms Carr added.

The response

Unlike most investigations of police use of force, transparency and punishment, at least at first, arrived swiftly after Jefferson’s death.

Two days after the shooting, Dean resigned from the FWPD and was charged with murder.

City officials, including the police chief and Fort Worth’s Republican mayor, were quick to condemn the violence for shattering community-police trust.

“It’s very emotional because the officers try hard every day to make this city better. They’re trying to build these relationships,” the interim police chief at the time, Ed Kraus, said. “I liken it to an anthill. And somebody comes with a hose and washes it all away.”

The killing, though it didn’t receive the kind of nationwide attention that later police slayings would, touched a nerve in the Fort Worth community.

For some, Jefferson’s shooting was another example of racist state violence in a region with a long history of red-lining and a majority white police force overseeing a population that’s majority Black and Hispanic.

Just days before Jefferson was killed, Amber Guyger, a white former officer in nearby Dallas, was sentenced to 10 years for killing Botham Jean, a Black man, in his own apartment, after the officer mistakenly believed he was an intruder in her home.

For others, Jefferson’s death, and the fact that her name did not seem to join the national conversation of wrongful police killings, was an indication of the ways the experiences of Black women are erased.

In Fort Worth, protestors pointedly chanted, “Say her name.”

“The families of these women often suffer in relative obscurity,” Black feminist legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw, who created the #SayHerName hashtag, wrote at the time. “Their daughters’ deaths don’t elicit the marches or news coverage that could catalyze accountability. When most people think about anti-black violence, like lynchings or police killings, they think about men. Women rarely come to mind first.”

The trial

Despite the unexpectedly swift punishment for Dean, it took more than three years for him to head to trial.

The case was delayed by legal wrangling, the death of his primary attorney, the removal of the initial judge overseeing the case, and claims from the former officer’s team that statements from local officials about the shooting would bias the outcome.

Dean, who has pleaded not guilty, claims he reasonably believed he was in danger.

Miles Brissette, his attorney, told the court on Monday the house Dean was called to investigated “looked like it’s been ransacked,” and that the officer had reason to fear for his safety.

“That gun was relevant,” Mr Brissette said. “This is a tragic accident.”

Critics have argued that Jefferson’s killer may not face a competent jury to handle this complex case, after the court approved a majority white panel with no Black members.

“After YEARS of delay, the murder trial of the former Fort Worth police officer accused of fatally shooting Atatiana Jefferson in 2019 is underway,” civil rights attorney Ben Crump wrote on Twitter on Monday. “Unfortunately, the jury doesn’t  include a single Black juror. I am praying that her family receives a fair and just trial!”

Observers are worried that even if Dean is convicted, Fort Worth hasn’t made any major changes to its policing policies to prevent future tragedies.

“I’ve learned not to expect much from most of Texas, and especially from Fort Worth,” Kendra Richardson, founder of a local mutual aid organisation, told Al Jazeera.

Others are more hopeful the death of Jefferson will inspire positive change.

“You, my dear, have indeed changed the world by your sacrificial love, unbridled work ethic and enduring legacy that is yet to unfold,” Jefferson’s mother wrote in a message read at her eulogy.

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The murder trial of former Fort Worth police officer Aaron Dean

Aaron Dean Trial Day One: Atatiana Jefferson’s nephew testifies, lawyers give emotional opening statements

The murder trial of former Fort Worth police officer Aaron Dean began Monday with opening statements from attorneys and testimony from Atatiana’s 11-year-old nephew, who was in the house on the night of the shooting

FORT WORTH, Texas – The murder trial of former Fort Worth police officer Aaron Dean got underway Monday morning in a Tarrant County courtroom.

Dean is charged with murder in the fatal shooting of Atatiana Jefferson in 2019.

The former Fort Worth officer was escorted through the hallway amid tight security. Spectators’ cell phones were collected before entering the courtroom.

“You are going to hear that this was an absolute intentional act, an unjustifiable act that never should’ve happened,” said prosecutor Ashley Deener during opening statements

Deener laid out the state’s case with emotion, giving an overview leading up to the single shot that killed Atatiana Jefferson.

A non-emergency call was about the home’s open front and side doors, with the lights on. Dean and another officer responded, going into the backyard where Dean fired his gun through a window.

“He sees something, he turns, and you will hear, ‘put your hands up, show me your hands, boom’. And I’m talking about, ‘show me your hands, put your hands up, boom’. It is not fast enough for Atatiana to process and follow the commands,” said Deener.

Dean’s defense follows suit.

Attorney Miles Brissette encourages jurors to focus on the information Dean had upon arrival: an open structure call, not a welfare check. He then referenced the city’s police officer training guide and that Jefferson was holding a gun.

“Signal 56 is an open structure. You go to that in the book, it says to treat it like a silent alarm. Burglary of a building,” said Brissette. “As soon as Aaron enters the backyard he sees a silhouette in the window. Aaron sees that silhouette in the window and that silhouette has a firearm.”

“He takes a half a step back, gives the commands per training, draws his weapon. The first and only time right then and fires one shot.” Brissette continues. Zion Carr, Atatiana’s nephew was the first witness called to the stand. Carr was the only person in the home with her that night. He recalls cooking hamburgers, but they burned inside the oven.

[ATTORNEY: “What’d you do after all the smoke came from burning all the hamburgers?”]

CARR: “We opened up the screen door and let the smoke go out, we had paper and was going like that, so the alarm could stop.”

Zion testified they forgot the doors were left open while playing video games. Then his aunt heard a noise in the backyard.

[ATTORNEY: “After she told you she heard a noise what did she do?”]

CARR: “She went to go get her weapon out of her purse.”

[ATTORNEY: “Where was her purse?”]

CARR: “Next to her table where she worked at.”

Under cross-examination he showed the jury how his aunt held the gun.

Zion struggled with some details and testified he doesn’t remember hearing the gunshot, only seeing his aunt fall to the floor.

[ATTORNEY: “Did you hear anyone get shot that night?”]

CARR: “No sir.”

[ATTORNEY: “Why don’t you think you heard anything?”]

CARR: “I probably just don’t remember it.”

The jury was dismissed before noon. The trial is expected to begin with a new witness on the stand Tuesday at 9 a.m.

If convicted of murder Dean could face between 5 and 99 years in prison.

FOX 4 will have gavel-to-gavel coverage on Fox4News.com and our YouTube page, plus live updates from the courtroom throughout the day. https://www.fox4news.com/news/aaron-dean-trial-atatiana-jefferson-day-one

Aaron Dean Trial: State rests case after just 3 days in former Fort Worth officer’s murder trial

FORT WORTH, Texas – After just three days of testimony, the state rested its murder case against former Fort Worth police officer Aaron Dean on Wednesday. The defense will now get the rest of the week to prepare their case. The announcement came as a surprise to court observers who expected a lot more from such a high-profile case. Dean is charged with murder in the fatal shooting of Atatiana Jefferson in 2019.  The state’s final witnesses in Dean’s trial testified about the crime scene, followed by Atatiana Jefferson’s sister.  Testimony on Wednesday focused mostly on forensic evidence and the medical examiner findings.  Crime scene investigators testified, explaining photos and high-tech 3D scans created from the shooting aftermath.   They looked at various angles of the home on East Allen Street in Fort Worth, the residence where Atatiana Jefferson lived, caring for her nephew while her mother was in the hospital.

Prosecutors also showed jurors the gun Atatiana Jefferson removed from her purse when she heard a noise in the backyard, as well as Aaron Dean’s service weapon. Dean fired a single shot through a backyard window while responding to the address because the doors were open late at night. The defense said Dean saw Jefferson point her gun at him, which the prosecution disputes.

The state’s final witness was Ashley Carr, Atatiana’s oldest sister. She described photos of Atatiana and spoke about her sister’s aspirations to become a doctor.

“When our mother started becoming ill she decided it would be best for her to move home to help my mother because it was a long drive from Dallas to Fort Worth for her coming out here to help, as well as for her to start saving, so she could go to medical school.” Carr said. “She wanted to find a cure for diabetes since she’s had it since she was very young.”

The defense declined to cross-examine Carr. Tarrant County’s deputy medical examiner also testified. He told the jury about autopsy findings. He also said Jefferson’s injury, a gunshot wound to the chest was too devastating to survive. The Next Generation Action Network released a statement about how quickly the DA wrapped up its case:

Now the case goes to the defense. However, they do not have their witnesses prepared to testify right away. It is not clear if there are scheduling conflicts, or if the defense was not expecting the state to rest this quickly. Former Dallas County prosecutor Russell Wilson, who is not connected to the case, says the prosecution may be hoping to see what the defense does before it presents more evidence. “The state would still have an opportunity to do rebuttal evidence. And so it may be that they would now prefer to show or to make the defense try to put on their case before they continue with theirs,” he said. Wilson says he was left wanting more regarding testimony on the specifics of police training and what could or should have been done the night of the shooting.

After This Story LETS HEAR ONE GOOD SONG! Then the trial Videos are after,  its the whole thing