• The officer who fatally shot Atatiana Jefferson in her home early Saturday resigned from the department before he could be fired Monday.
• Shortly after, he was arrested and charged with murder.
• He was released from jail on a $200,000 bond a few hours later. 
• Fort Worth police officials said they presented a preliminary case to the FBI to review for possible civil rights violations.

Ex-Officer Charged With Murder

The former Fort Worth police officer who fatally shot Atatiana Jefferson while she was home playing video games with her 8-year-old nephew Saturday was arrested and charged with murder.

Aaron Dean was booked into the Tarrant County Correction Center Monday evening. He was released about three hours after his arrest after posting a $200,000 bond, according to county inmate records. Police declined to say whether Dean was arrested by the department or if he turned himself in. 

The murder charge is the latest development in a case that has sparked national outrage and reignited conversations about police accountability. Just hours before his arrest, Dean resigned from the department before he could be terminated. 

Members of the Fort Worth community and Jefferson’s family are glad to see action being taken against the former officer, after a long weekend of calling for justice. 

“The family of Atatiana Jefferson is relieved that Aaron Dean has been arrested & charged with murder,” Lee Merritt, an attorney for Jefferson’s family, said in a statement.

“A murder charge and an arrest is a good start — it’s more than we are used to seeing.”

However, like many others, Merritt is waiting to see how the case is prosecuted.  

“He did get what I wanted him to get, and this is only the start,”  Jefferson’s brother Adarius Carr told CNN. “There’s no way this is enough. We know this is a good step in the direction where we want to go, but it’s definitely not the end.”

Department Explains Resignation

Dean, who had been commissioned as a licensed officer with the department since April 2018,  was served a written administrative complain on Sunday. He was also placed on detached duty and stripped of his badge and gun, Interim Police Chief Ed Kraus said at a news conference Monday when announcing the officer’s resignation.

“My intent was to meet with him today to terminate his employment with the Fort Worth Police Department. However, the officer tendered his resignation this morning before we met,” Chief Kraus explained.

Had he not resigned, Kraus said Dean would have been terminated for several policy violations, including the department’s use of force and de-escalation policies, as well as unprofessional conduct. Kraus said that Dean’s separation paperwork will still indicate that he was dishonorably discharged from employment with the department. 

“I get it,” Kraus said of the public’s outrage following the release of body camera footage from the shooting. The clip showed that Jefferson had been given no warning that the men who had crept into her backyard were police officers. When Dean spotted her through her bedroom window, he quickly shined a flashlight at her and shouted “Put your hands up! Show me your hands!” then immediately fired the fatal shot at her. 

“Nobody looked at that video and said there was any doubt that this officer acted inappropriately,” the chief said.

The chief also addressed backlash the department faced over the mention of a firearm police said they found in Jefferson’s room. In the released bodycam footage, police included stills of the firearm, without offering any other information about its relation to the incident.

“Law enforcement has not said that she wielded a weapon,” Attorney Lee Merritt said adding that Jefferson legally owned the weapon. “Also, it wouldn’t matter, because that’s her home.”

Jefferson’s attorney also noted that she moved near the bedroom window because she was concerned about a prowler or burglar who might have been outside. 

Kraus said he regretted that the department had released those images of the gun on the floor below the window in the bedroom after she was killed. He declined to say if she was holding it or if the officer saw it before he shot her, but he said that she had every right to have a gun in her bedroom. 

“We’re homeowners in the state of Texas,” he said. “I can’t imagine most of us — if we thought we had somebody outside our house that shouldn’t be and we had access to a firearm — that we wouldn’t act very similarly to how she acted.”

Kraus noted that the department had presented a preliminary case to the FBI to review for possible civil rights violations, adding, “None of this information can ease the pain of Atatiana’s family but I hope it shows the community that we take these incidents seriously.”

Death of Atatiana Jefferson 

Atatiana Jefferson had recently moved home to help care for her mother whose health was declining. She worked selling medial equipment and was studying to apply for medical school. On the day of her death, she stayed up with her nephew into the early hours of Saturday morning playing video games. 

After noticing that Jefferson’s front and side doors had been open for several hours, a concerned neighbor called a nonemergency line requesting a wellness check on the residents inside.  

Officers arrived around 2:30 a.m. but did not identify themselves as police when approaching the home. In fact, the neighbor who called authorities, James Smith, told local reporters that officers did not park in the driveway or in front of the home where Jefferson could see them but instead parked around the corner. 

The bodycam footage released Saturday showed officers peeking into a screen door and walking around the perimeter of the home into the backyard where the fatal shot was fired. 

Officers tried to provide Jefferson with medical assistance, but she died at the scene shortly after being shot. Her young nephew was in the room for the shooting and her death, according to authorities. 

The shooting has drawn comparisons to the 2018 killing of Botham Jean, a 26-year-old black man who had been watching T.V. and eating ice cream inside his apartment when he was shot and killed by former off-duty Dallas officer Amber Guyger. Less than two weeks before Jefferson’s murder, Guyger was convicted or murder and sentenced to 10 years in prison. 

While many in the community are hoping to see justice for Jefferson’s death, activists said this is the seventh local police shootings involving civilians, with six of them being fatal. Community members say the trauma they feel and their fear of the police department will be difficult to repair.

The neighbor who called for the wellness check himself has even expressed guilt over his decision. “I’m shaken. I’m mad. I’m upset. And I feel it’s partly my fault,” he told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

In an interview with CNN, he added, “I feel guilty because had I not called the Fort Worth Police Department, my neighbor would still be alive today,”

See what others are saying: (The New York Times) (NBC News) (CNN)