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Atatiana Jefferson

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Aaron Dean, the cop who is responsible for the 2019 fatal shooting of 28-year-old Atatiana  Jefferson, has been sentenced to almost 12 years in prison after the jury found him guilty of manslaughter.

The former Ft. Worth police officer who killed Jefferson as she innocently played a video game with her nephew, was sentenced to 11 years and 10 months in prison.

Related:LIVE: Trial of Ft. Worth’s Atatiana Jefferson

The sentence came down Tuesday afternoon by a jury after 2 full days of deliberation. Although he was found guilty of manslaughter, a lot of people were hoping that he was found guilty of Murder for the tragic incident that happened October 12,2019.

Related:Atatiana Jefferson’s Mother Dies Months After Her Daughter Was Shot And Killed By Fort Worth Police Officer

In Texas, defendants can elect to have a jury decide their sentence instead of a judge. Dean faced anywhere between 2 and 20 year sentence the manslaughter conviction.

The prosecution requested the jurors to give the former police officer the Maximum sentence of 20 years and Dean’s defense proposed to sentence him to probation instead of time behind bars.

The former police officer plead not guilty. Dean shot Jefferson when he was responding to wellness check after Jefferson’s neighbor asked for someone to check on the house, after noticing her door was open.

Jefferson and her 8-year-old Nephew were playing video games when they heard Dean approach the window, which they thought was a prowler according to the family attorney S. Lee Merritt.

The body camera shows police walking around the property in the dark and noticing someone in the window and shortly after yelling “put your hands up, show me your hands” firing one shot killing Jefferson.

Dean resigned from the department two days after the shooting. Just hours after his resignation, he was arrested and then released on bond.

He was indicted on murder, but the jury in his trial had the option to find him guilty of manslaughter instead of murder in their deliberations.

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