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Texas Grand Jury Indicts Officer Aaron Dean for Murdering Atatiana Jefferson

HeadlineDec 23, 2019

In Texas, a grand jury has indicted former Fort Worth police officer Aaron Dean for murdering Atatiana Jefferson in a case that sparked widespread outrage over police killings of African-American women. Officer Dean, who is white, was responding to a non-emergency call for a wellness check called for by a neighbor who saw Jefferson’s front door was open on a warm night in October. The 28-year-old graduate student was in her bedroom, babysitting her 8-year-old nephew. Soon after the officers arrived, Dean shouted through Jefferson’s bedroom window to put her hands up, and then immediately opened fire, killing her. He never identified himself as a police officer. On Friday, Atatiana’s mother celebrated the murder indictment. Atatiana’s father died in November of a heart attack, at the age of 58, less than one month after his daughter’s murder.

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