Former Officer Who Fatally Shot Atatiana Jefferson Found Guilty Of Manslaughter

Throughout the case, prosecutors alleged that Dean was a former cop with a greed for power whose internalized racism led him to shoot Jefferson. Dean’s attorneys argued that the former officer fired his weapon in self-defense, fearing for his life in what his lawyers described as a tragic accident, not a criminal act.

“If you can’t feel safe in your own home, where can you feel safe?” Ashlea Deener, Tarrant County prosecutor, asked jurors during closing arguments on Wednesday, CNN reports. “When you think about your house, you think about safety. It’s where you go to retreat, to get away from the world.”

Dean’s defense attorney Bob Gill explained to jurors that the former officer was terrified when he peered into Jefferson’s apartment through her bedroom window.

“If you believe that Aaron was legitimately defending a third person, and reasonably defending a third person, or if you had a reasonable doubt about whether he was doing such, then you are to acquit Aaron,” he told jurors, according to CNN. “And you don’t have to agree that it was self-defense or defense of a third person. You just have to decide in your mind that he reasonably believed he was doing one of those two things.”

Dean pleaded not guilty to murder — a charge that can warrant a sentence of up to 99 years. However, jurors were told to also consider a lesser charge against Dean: manslaughter.

After a 13-hour deliberation, the jury found Dean guilty of manslaughter.

“We’re glad there was a guilty verdict. That’s progress,” minister and activist Rev. Crystal Bates said of the jury’s decision, CNN reports. “But there’s so much work to be done. … How he is sentenced is going to send a message not only to him but to other law enforcement to not be so trigger-happy when you see somebody of color.”

According to WFFA, the sentencing phase starts Friday.