Note: The video above is from 2019.
The Tarrant County District Attorney wants to schedule court hearings in the murder case against a former Fort Worth police officer who shot and killed Atatiana Jefferson last year, according to a motion filed Wednesday.
Former officer Aaron Dean is charged with murder in Jefferson's death. Dean is free on bond.
Jefferson, 28, was playing video games with her 8-year-old nephew at her Fort Worth home when Dean walked into the backyard in October 2019. She had gotten up to look out the window when she was shot, police records show.
District Attorney Sharen Wilson requested that court hearings be set through videoconference as soon as possible. She said in a motion that she wants a trial date set once the county can safely resume jury trials.
Records show that there have been three court settings in the case since Dean was indicted in December. The last one was March 3.
On Oct. 12, 2019, a neighbor had called police requesting a welfare check after he saw the door open at Jefferson's Fort Worth home. The officers were told it was an "open structure" call. They parked around the corner.
Dean was walking around the outside of the house and had walked into the backyard when he shot once through a window of the house, body-camera footage shows.
Just before firing his gun, the officer yelled, "Put your hands up. Show me your hands!"
Jefferson, who her family called "Tay," died at the scene.
Her nephew told investigators that his aunt "yelled out in pain," according to an arrest warrant affidavit.
The arrest warrant states three times that Dean did not announce that he was a police officer when he walked around the house.
Dean did not give any statement to Fort Worth investigators on why he shot, officials said.
He resigned before he could be fired, Fort Worth Police Department officials said.
In such investigations, it's common for a police officer to give a statement to investigators and to the internal affairs division of their police department.
The officer who was dispatched with Dean only saw “Jefferson’s face through the window” when Dean shot once into the house, the warrant says.
Jefferson's nephew told police that his aunt had taken her handgun from her purse before she looked out the window after hearing a noise int he backyard, the affidavit says.
