Aaron Dean Atatiana Jefferson shooting
This undated photo provided by the Tarrant County Jail shows Aaron Dean. The Fort Worth police officer who shot and killed a black woman through a back window of her home while responding to a call about an open front door was charged with murder on Monday after resigning from the force. (Tarrant County Jail via AP)

From the Associated Press

A white former Fort Worth police officer has been booked in jail on a murder charge for the shooting of a black woman through a window in her home.

Aaron Dean was booked Monday afternoon. He also resigned from the police department, and the chief said he would have been fired if he didn’t quit.

Atatiana Jefferson was shot to death Saturday by Dean, who was responding to a report of an open door. Interim Police Chief Ed Kraus said Monday that there’s no indication the officers knocked on the front door, and that Jefferson died from a gunshot fired through a window accessible from the fenced-in back yard.

Bond has been set at $200,000. The Fort Worth Police Department issued a statement on the arrest via Twitter . . .

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131 COMMENTS

  1. Yes, he should be charged with murder.
    But a thorough, transparent investigation into how such poorly trained police officers were armed and in the field. Aaron Dean pulled the trigger, but when a human being fails like that there are often systemic issues that contributed to the failure. Dean should be tried, but that should not be an excuse to let the departmental leadership ‘off-the-hook’.

    • Yeah, I agree. Just as the same extreme scrutiny law enforcement gives ALL to citizen CCW holders in most states. What’s good for the Citizen is also good for the police (citizen)…I think there should be “Full Independent Civilian Review Boards ” for ALL rank and file Law Enforcement Officers. In order to uphold the public trust. No more “Judge Dread ” behavior…

      • I don’t know how it is in Texas, but in Georgia all that is required to become a cop or deputy sheriff is be 21 years old and ten weeks and one day of instruction in a certified police academy. That’s not even one year of college in terms of classroom time. Way, way too easy to get a badge and a gun here. The town I grew up in was a university town, so their policy was not to hire anyone to send to the academy unless they had a 4 year college degree in any subject, or had served in and been honorably discharged from any of the five military service branches. I wish their policy was state law, with one additional path: a two year community college degree in criminal justice.

        • “That’s not even one year of college in terms of classroom time.”

          I don’t think “book learning” has much to do with this. This guy arrived on-scene wound *way* too tight. He didn’t need ‘training’, he should have never been admitted or graduated from their ‘academy’ in the first place.

          This is a failure of screening for suitability as an LEO, or in the training itself.

          Is this the result of training over-emphasizing “hesitation kills” and “your #1 job is to go home safe at shift end”?

        • I teach and have graduated plenty of college students that I wouldn’t trust with law enforcement powers or a firearm. A modern college campus is far better at teaching people to regurgitate far left pieties that it is at inculcating maturity and critical thinking.

    • In recent years it seems like there has been such a focus on “officer safety” to such a degree that it could be said to be the top priority “above all else,” including the lives of those a police force is supposed to be protecting. Maybe it’s just that incidents like this are making the news more or that I’m just seeing those articles more, but it definitely seems like officers are being trained to open fire or use other overwhelming force at the slightest perceived risk or resistance. That perception (on my part, at least) is reinforced by things like the “No Hesitation” targets that showed up a few years ago.

      It could be argued that this officer was poorly trained, but it seems to me that this recent spate of shooting innocent people in their homes through windows is a direct result of current training.

      • I’m not in law enforcement, but I would be surprised if officers are trained to shoot through windows at people who are not a direct threat to them.

        • No, not explicitly. But by stressing “officer safety” and “no hesitation” reactions to the slightest threat it’s easy to see how “person holding a gun (maybe)” can result in a lethal response drilled into them by training, even when such a response is totally inappropriate.

          Looking through a window is certainly part of their training. Gathering information is a central part of the job of an officer. When combined with threat identification it’s entirely reasonable for the two to combine into the kinds of responses we’ve been seeing. After all, a window doesn’t protect an officer from a genuine threat from an armed individual, so if their training is that they are to be hyper-reactive to perceived threats, shooting a “person with a gun” on the other side of a window is exactly what you would expect.

        • I understand your point, and even agree to some extent. If this were a less extreme case, I think we’d be entirely on the same page. I know from my own very few interactions with LE during, for example, a traffic stop (or sometimes even just during conversations) there is often a weird “us” vs. “them” vibe that is quite off-putting, unnecessary, uncomfortable, and sometimes even mildly threatening. I do think that attitude is trained, and unfortunately so.

          In this particularly extreme case, though, this officer went well beyond whatever training causes that vibe. (I think it’s inculcated in a very tribal kind of way, e.g. “you are not one of us, therefore we deal with you differently.”) Jumping from that to, “I am going to shoot you,” is quite a leap. It’s really hard to fathom what this officer could possibly have been thinking.

          • I also wonder how any officer would be so aggressive at shooting through a window, especially when doing a welfare check. But this isn’t the only instance of such a shooting, or even the police shooting someone they’re checking on. (See the recent story of an office shooting at the woman’s dog and hitting her.) To me, this suggesting a pattern that is probably due to training.

        • I would bet, in most of those instances, that the officer in question had his finger on the trigger, and pulled it in surprise rather than intentionally. Which begs the question, is finger on the trigger carry trained into them, not trained out of them, or disregarded entirely during training?

          Of course, when you have the perception of immunity, an investigative department that’ll usually side with you, and been drilled that every single second could be your last, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to learn most hoplophobic cops finger-while-investigating.

        • Was the training daily repetition of “Black person plus gun equals threat, and threat is to be eliminated”.

        • EWTHeckman, you said, “Looking through a window is certainly part of their training. Gathering information is a central part of the job of an officer.”

          No, when called to check on the health and safety of an INNOCENT woman, then sneaking around their house, acting like a peeping Tom, and peering into the woman’s bedroom window is not part of a cop’s training. My guess is that Officer Peeping Tom wanted to see some T & A from a MILF, so he peeked into her bedroom window instead of knocking on her door and announcing himself as a cop. An innocent cop would knock on the door and announce himself, or ring the doorbell and announce himself, not sneak around the house and act like a Peeping Tom, peering into women’s bedroom windows! Didn’t you see the movie “Unlawful Entry” starring Ray Liotta as a corrupt cop? This reminds me of the scene in the movie where Ray Liotta shines his flashlight on a couple while they’re having sex in their own bedroom, just because he wanted to see some T & A from the hot MILF he was trying to steal away from her husband.
          See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unlawful_Entry_(film)

      • But ‘getting home safe to their family’ trumps being home safe with yours. Next time you think about standing up quickly when you hear a noise outside your window, think twice. Officer ‘get home safely’ might be just outside the window…

        • Or as I’ve been saying forever…

          Keep your curtains/blinds closed at night. Why would anyone allow for direct line-of-sight into their ground floor windows?

      • LAW ENFORCEMENT HAS BEEN MILITARIZED. The truth is the only Constitutional LEO are the Sheriffs. The rest are just unConstitutional thugs working at Walmart wages, making up the rules as they go.

        • My local and State Taxes don’t reflect Walmart Wages. The State cops are all well over a hundred grand by time they reach 20 years. They retire and collect damned near what they were making, then they go take a local cop job and take another retirement out of that.

        • Please provide article and section in the US Constitution that deals with local law enforcement or mentions sheriffs in any way. The Constitution deals with the Federal government. States and localities can employ any law enforcement they want.

        • On the other hand, if you have a terrorist attack on something like utilities, local law enforcement will be the first to respond. I’ve read that Homeland Security is providing equipment to local law enforcement to prepare them for such a situation. If we don’t have such gear and training in place, then we’re going to complain that LEOs aren’t prepped for such an event.

          That said, training standards aren’t set by the federal government, but federal grants could be provided to state/county/local LEOs. Training doesn’t always need to be tactical, it can be for de-escalation, current statutes, etc.

          I’m not in law enforcement, but I recognize the benefit of standards, auditing to make sure standards are adhered to, and accreditation to make certain that standards meet a certain minimum level. Therefore, citizens should press for their local departments to become CALEA accredited. I searched for “Fort Worth” on https://www.calea.org/calea-client-database and came up with nada. Fort Worth might not be providing training and equipment to the level they should… or they follow another standard than CALEA.

        • It was Obama , the First black president, that ramped up the shipping of “free military weapons of war” to civilian police departments.

          Why does a cop need an AR-15???
          Are 30 rounds sexier than 5 rounds in a pump action shotgun? Why are departments replacing their shotguns with AR15s???

          Most departments had a lever action rifle only. If they needed a rifle at all. Someone ask the Democrats why the police need a “weapon of War” in their patrol car for daily use???

          “If You Thought Obama Was Giving Less Military Gear to Local Police Departments, You Were Wrong”

          http://inthesetimes.com/features/obama_police_miltary_equipment_ban.html

        • “It was Obama , the First black president,…”

          (Tongue-in-cheek)

          Sorry, Chris – I was taught by the ‘media’ that Bill Clinton was the “first black president”… 😉

        • “It was Obama , the First black president, that ramped up …”

          If Obama had shot Trayvon Martin instead of Zimmerman, would Obama have been described as a White African American or as a White Black Man?

        • So you’re blaming Obama for a program started by George HW Bush?

          “The “National Defense Authorization Act of 1990”, section 1208 authorized transfer of military hardware from the Department of Defense broadly to “federal and state agencies”, but specifically “for use in counter-drug activities”.[8][9] as this legislation was passed in the context of the War on Drugs.[9][10] Until 1997, it was called the 1208 program and run by the Department of Defense from the Pentagon and its regional offices.”

          And the fact is, President Obama signed an executive order to cut back on the program but President Trump rescinded Obama’s order when he came in the office, resuming transferring military weapons and equipment to local police departments.

          “President Obama signed Executive Order 13688 on May 2015 limiting and prohibiting certain types of equipment.[4][5] On 28 August 2017 President Trump rolled back Obama’s Executive Order.[6] The ACLU and the NAACP have raised concerns about they call the militarization of police forces in the US. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the move early Monday morning of that week at the Fraternal Order of Police convention in Nashville, and said the president would do so by executive order.[7] At the same time, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the director of the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) pointed out the use of 1033 equipment as life saving devices seeing restrictions on distributing military surplus to police as “too far.” The FOP also pointed out that the armored vehicles weren’t tanks.”

          Doesn’t it make you feel funny in your belly to know that you’ve been snookered by the right wing? Oh yeah, I forgot, ‘black man bad!’

        • “Oh yeah, I forgot, ‘black man bad!’”

          Son, if Condoleezza Rice was the Republican nominee for president, there would be *thunderous applause* all across this great land.

          The actual racists are you and your little ‘Progressive’ buddies, so steeped in racism that you actually make the argument that Blacks either can’t afford picture ID or don’t know where the DMV offices are.

          Racists that believe inner-city Blacks need their hands to be held by you “Progressives”. Yet, not *once* has any Black ever claimed they have no ID to board a commercial airliner.

          And you know what, ‘miner’? I’ve seen *plenty* of Blacks on airline flights I’ve been on…

      • I would tend to agree. The husband of a friend of mine changed careers to LE. Being retired Navy he was appalled by the Academy teaching what it did and being staffed by “wannabe” military who obviously never were military.

        Dinner conversation condensed to a few sentences: He was particularly irked by the way that they taught their recruits that everyone in a uniform was “friendly” but everyone out of uniform was a “tango” or “potential tango” unless you knew they were off duty “friendlies”. All persons not in uniform were to be considered a danger to the safety of officers at all times, obviously with known suspects being the highest threat level.

        He also noted that their hand to hand training was poor and overly aggressive with a number of injuries resulting in people being removed from the academy and this being encouraged as an appropriate level of aggression for hand to hand training for dealing with the public.

        He was pretty ticked when he mentioned this and they told him that he “should learn how the military conducts training”, as if what they were being taught was remotely appropriate for the civilian world.

      • Since ’06 we’ve been repeatedly invaded by gangs from New Orleans and cartels from Mexico. It’s getting pretty ugly. Not that I think that justifies this tragedy in any way, but I do think it explains the broader trend towards itchy trigger fingers among Texas cops. When there are groups of drug-addled psychos and/or a actual literal foreign soldiers shooting up your buddies in traffic stops and warrant services, I can see how it would be hard not to see threats everywhere.

        • Mercury,

          Yes. And who do we have to thank for this mayhem?
          — The democratic party
          — The former President
          — RINOs
          — Left-wing judges who think they have authority to over-ride the Constitution.

    • It’s why it’s frustrating to always see the racial angle take the lead in these situations when, IMO, it’s a much larger indictment of awful training

      • It’s more organizational culture than training.

        Way too many cops consider themselves a class above the rest of us, and unaccountable to anyone except other cops.

        Even more disturbing is the number of citizens who enable this attitude by their eagerness to blame the victims of police abuse for their own victimization, hence the vicious attacks on Kathryn Johnston and Carolina Obrycka.

        If you want a picture perfect example of the value that a lot of cops place on the lives of innocent citizen, look at the example of Emma Hernandez, Margie Carranza and David Perdue. To this day, cops are defending the attempts of the LAPD and Torrance PD to slaughter two Hispanic women and a White man “mistaken” for a 300lb. Black man driving a different type of vehicle. Their excuse? The cops were “scared”. I’ll bet those three are damned scared of cops now. Would that justify any of them shooting a cop who made a “furtive movement”? Of course none of the cops was punished in any way.

    • A series of wrongful uses of force by multiple officers is indicative of bad training. One officer screwing up is indicative of a bad officer. There is such a thing as individual responsibility. I didn’t notice his partner shooting.

    • There should absolutely be due process. There should also be a full review and determination of the facts, ie., he approached the house at night from the back yard; he never identified himself as a police officer; he fired through a window when it was unlikely that she could even see him being in a lit room and looking out into a dark yard; and he did not give her any time to react after demanding that she show him her hands.

      This was a police officer sworn to serve and protect who was responding to a non-emergency call of a door open at night. How was this looking out for the well being of a citizen? I was a probation officer for many years and my son was a sheriff’s deputy, and neither of us think this guy should walk from this.

  3. Guy looks like he has a few “crossed wires” or an incorrect number of chromosomes. He eyes and chin aren’t even.

      • Yes, phrenology has been discredited, but certain facial features like a flat philtrum (which this officer doesn’t have) can be caused by fetal alcohol syndrome for example.

    • Yeah….. He definitely doesn’t look right….I could’ve taken one look at that guy and known he wasn’t suitable for LE….
      It’s just like most other fields of employment…. All the little hoops you have to jump through make it to where you only end up with the types of people who are cops today…. The guys who got bullied in school… Now they’re all grown up and with a badge…. Never ends well…..

  4. Yes, he flat-out murdered the woman in front of her 8 year-old nephew.
    But no, it has nothing to do with the fact she was black, or the fact that he was white.
    It had everything to do with the fact that he was a trigger happy coward.

    If the colors were reversed, the media would not be leading every story with a statement about skin tone.

    • It happened on Saturday, and he was arrested and charged with murder yesterday. And yet, it still wasn’t quick enough for Lee Merritt and these so-called “reverends”. These race hustlers are not interested in unity or solutions of any kind, because if that were to happen, there’d be no use for them anymore.

      I agree with arrest and the murder charge, and that the FWPD’s training and policies need to be reviewed. But, make no mistake about it, Merritt and his band of poverty pimps are not on our side, they’re just involved because the victim was black.

  5. It would be great if we could get some LEOs between Broward County’s Scot Peterson and Fort Worth’s Aaron Dean. Please and thank you.

    I appreciate the rest of you in law enforcement when you put forth the effort in protecting and serving and upholding the constitution without being giant a$$h@ts.

  6. I dont care if she was sitting on her couch with an AR on each side and a Cobra 44 in her lap. This guy should never have been a cop if he felt his life was/is in danger. No announcement just shoot 1st is pure bullshit.
    Jail would not be good enough for me in this case. A public hanging might be best.

    • Quick story. My uncle is a retired marine, a door gunner in Vietnam for 2 years. The life span of the job is on average like 17 seconds.. then he went to law school, and then a detour of 10 years as a county sherrif. Then a lawyer, a DA, then finally a judge till he got too old and decrepid ( his words)
      So years ago, we were talking, and he told me.. when a cop is approaching someone, the number one thing on his mind is ‘is this the person that kills me?’ Cops by definition deal with the bad elements of society. But along with that, he is thinking ‘how do I get out of this’.
      So in relation to this shooting.. In other words, his first reaction should have been to duck and retreat, not draw and fire. You think he couldnt just step once to the side to get out of the line of sight of the window quicker than he could shoot through it?
      He had a knee jerk reaction that should have been trained out of him… he didn’t walk up to the house planning to kill someone.. he probably didn’t think, up on seeing a shadowy figure through the window, hey I want to kill this shadow.. he just recklessly drew and fired.
      I can see him pleading down to intentional man slaughter or whatever Texas has like that..
      As a side note, this is also why my late wife didn’t get a gun in her nightstand. We had a cat that was misbehaving. So we had plastic water pistols that we kept handy to discourage her from doing things.. well one time I came up behind my wife seated in a chair, and startled her, intentionally.. you know, touch shoulder with a boo.. in a fraction of a second she had grabbed that water gun and fired into my face.. twice.. then she was like ‘oh sorry, did I squirt you?’.. now, she grew up on a ranch, and can shoot the head off a rattler at 50 yrds with a .30-30 and quick draw a .22 SAA on a moving rat.. so I really didn’t want to get shot sneaking into bed late at night 😉 so no gun within reach for her.. she got the 12 gauge under the bed, where she had to think before using..

      • She new it was you before she fired. She was just using the same tactic you were using on the cat to change your behavior.

    • Said to have a BS in physics from Texas-Arlington. If so, he’s at least better at math than 99.9% of cops.

      • “Said to have a BS in physics from Texas-Arlington.”

        Well, that flushes straight down the crapper the theory that a “college education” is a necessary prerequisite to be a cop with a badge and a gun…

        • I’m always leery of a person that appears to be over qualified for the given job and they’re actively seeking that slot. As a rule when I’ve hired folks like that it hasn’t worked out well.

          • “I’m always leery of a person that appears to be over qualified for the given job and they’re actively seeking that slot. As a rule when I’ve hired folks like that it hasn’t worked out well.”

            after retiring, i applied for weekend work at TSA in a major airport. application was rejected as being unqualified to do security work.

            As a former ChairForce pilot, college grad, two master’s degrees, adjunct college instructor, having held security clearances TSA has never even heard of, nuclear weapons instructor, trained in OPSEC/COMSEC, and classified materials storage/handling, guess I was one of those people who would have disappointed you.

            But, applying was worth the outcome…entertainment value.

        • “I’m always leery of a person that appears to be over qualified for the given job and they’re actively seeking that slot.”

          30 years ago, I ran into that in *spades*.

          The company I worked for at the time decided they needed ‘degreed’ people to supervise rotating shifts. I *loudly* argued that would be a *huge* mistake, since what person with a college degree would want to work rotating shifts with *highly* limited opportunities for advancement. There was no *up*. Just stagnation. They went ahead anyways, and it played out *exactly* as I predicted. None of them lasted a full year, when they realized rotating shifts was gonna be all they could expect. And who could blame them? They were looking for a first step in a career, and they were offering stagnation.

          In the engineering department, however, they got it *right*. Newly-degreed new-hire chemical engineers were thrown out into the production plant as shift supervisors. It worked out *fantastic*. After their two-years “in the trenches”, they came out knowing how the plant actually worked, instead of how “it should work in theory”. They had the skills for success…

        • “The company I worked for at the time decided they needed ‘degreed’ people to supervise rotating shifts.”

          You see this with educated and non-educated people alike. It’s not so much about creds in most cases as it is willingness to learn WTAF is going on.

          The shift manager when I worked on flow meters was terrified that I, with a degree, was gunning for his job (I was not. I hated the entire company, not just the job). The problem with him wasn’t that his incompetence stemmed from a lack of education or from over education it was that his incompetence stemmed from a lack of interest in the process he was supervising. The guy’s because his prior job was managing a Rent-A-Center, a job he was probably pretty good at, at least I have no reason to believe that he was not good at it.

          However, he had no knowledge of manufacturing and no desire to learn it. As such welders, wiring guys… everyone, walked all over him. He couldn’t manage a process he didn’t understand and was therefore vulnerable to being lied to about what was going on and, conversely, telling people to do things that wouldn’t work which undermined his credibility.

          The result was half the people on the production floor talking on their phones most of the day instead of working. They used the excuse that there was a step in the process that required a wait period and everyone else telling the guy to fuck off when he bothered to come out of his office, which was rare because he got tired of being publicly told to go fuck himself.

          It’s damn sad when you’ve got someone who’s job is to supervise high-end production of six-figure priced machines and high school kids are getting away with murder by whispering “sugar” (literally the word, not some homosexual flirtations) at him. Those high school kids could be upping productivity but they won’t because 1) they’re immature and 2) there’s no incentive for them to do so.

          The result was a shit-show.

  8. All this discussion about “training”…he’s an idiot. On a welfare check. Sceered of colored folks.😖

  10. There’s been a lot of local talk and news stories about problems with the police department. Many stories of officers escalating the crap out of routine interactions with citizens, to the point of starting fights with people who called them for help and then arresting those people.

    Hell yes arresting this killer cop and prosecuting him is the right thing to do. But there is something seriously screwed up within that police department too. If it isn’t fixed more needless, stupid tragedies will happen.

    As for being pro or anti-law enforcement, it is a simple thing. When cops do well, praise them and cheer them and thank them. When they do bad deeds, come down on them hard and fast with the full weight of the law.

    Same as it should be for any citizen that either does something heroic and positive, or who breaks the law. Appropriate response to the behavior witnessed, simple as that.

  11. Looks like Ex-Officer Dean will not be pursuing a LE position in another Texas town or any other town or city for that matter.

  12. The reaction is coming to ccw holders also He s got a gun bang bang some of us are going to try and stop from being murdered by the cowards in le

  13. Not only will he be released and found not guilty. He will then sue successfully the city and win damages. I don’t even expect a manslaughter conviction.

  14. Did he even have time to determine her race? “Show your hands” bang. It takes longer to type that sentence than it took for him to shoot her. He was in her backyard at 2 am, did not ring the front door, and did not announce his identity. She would have been justified in shooting him, IMO.

    Did Dean ever consider that he had all of the characteristics of a trespasser?

  15. If the woman only had a dog she’d still be alive. The cop would have emptied his mag on the dog giving her time to take cover.

  16. This whole thing stinks of a railroad job! In the same press conference, the chief announced that they were going to perform a thorough investigation, which might take a week or two. Then he announced that he would have fired the cop if he hadn’t resigned. Then, within a day, he arrested the cop for murder.

    What happened to the thorough investigation?

    Most likely, he was so intimidated by the revruns that the idea of fair treatment or standing by the officer until all the facts were in never occurred to him.

    I wonder what the morale is like in the Ft Worth PD. . .

    • He saw what happened via the bodycam. He got statements from the other officer. He knew enough to make decisions. In the end, the union and the DA/AG are the ones that have the final say.

      The police have to wait a few days before they can interview the cop about what happened. Before they could interview him he decided to quit and speak through his lawyer. They never had the chance to fire him for violating all the policies.

      Violation of policy, that leads to the death of an innocent person, will get you fired because the department has to protect themselves. They are not going to sacrifice themselves for your dumbass.

      People can go get the policies of the department and watch the bodycam to see what was done wrong. Then they can make a great case against the department and expose the corruption. The mayor will not be happy about their reelection chances decreasing.

      It’s never a great idea to protect a murderer when you claim to be the most just people in America.

      Cops quickly abandon their brothers and sisters when shit goes down. They want to go home, they don’t want to go to prison. They will try to help at first, but when stuff gets complicated they leave you behind. There is no brotherhood when they are facing prison time.

  17. Charged with murder isn’t convicted of murder. We’ll see what happens at trial. But I’m encouraged that police are finally being charged with their crimes against people, unlike previous years when the union and the Blue Wall of Silence were able to cover up for them.

  18. He looks good enuff to eat wonder what thyre going to do with his carcuss sfter the execution?

  19. The police chief stated that the cop violated every protocol when he arrived at the house. This would show a complete lack of training (as usual) which led to the tragedy. Many U.S. cops get only a few weeks training to cut down costs and this is what happens.

    I have read that some foreign police agencies require as much as 3 years of intensive training covering all laws, as well as proper procedures for deescalating situations and they are given psychological tests for fitness of even becoming a cop. In the U.S. if you like bullying and shooting people just sign up and you get the job 24 hours later and plenty of ammo to go with it. Some Police departments prefer Ex-veterans many of whom are suffering from ptss. It shows even the people who run Police Departments know little or nothing about who should and should not be permitted to become a cop. I read on the internet that several years ago China shot and killed 4 people, Germany 12 and the U.S. 1,500. I would recommend all potential U.S. Cops be forced to get their training in China or Germany (at their expense) before being considered for a job applicant in the U.S.

  20. I know you folks are going to think that I’m nuts for what I am about to suggest. Every cop should be required to buy his/her ammo. Police issued cartridges for $3,000.00 each (or thereabouts) taken from their salary in monthly installments. Typical loaded magazine $45K. I am quite sure that this would prevent the tired old feared for my life pathetic BS murder excuse if it is gonna cost you some serious coin.. I don’t think there would be very many (if any) criminal cop executions at all. Cops should get Capital Punishment for these Nazi crimes that they commit literally on a daily basis..

    • I see what you’re going for, but this is effectively an argument to disarm law enforcement. If that is what you want, just argue for it. Many people wouldn’t agree with you, but there’s a case to be made. And actually, your plan is probably worse than simply disarming police. It inserts a very complex psychological barrier into decision-making that is already very complex and which usually must be done quickly. It introduces personal monetary issues into life or death circumstances. This is likely to result in much worse decisions than if the gun were simply not a factor at all.

    • You are right. I do think you are nuts.
      Is there anything preventing the cops to buy their own ammo for about 20 cents a pop? Or make it for less than half that much.

      • You are a clever boy! Ever heard of ballistics? Cops should be required to use the high dollar ammo for all killings whilst fearing for their lives…

  22. That search or whatever you might call it was terrible, especially with a car in the driveway. Who the Sam Hill did he expect to find in the house? And the time span between challenge and shot is kind of like the old joke that ended, Boom, Halt! And that camera shot through that window wasn’t all that great. Maybe this guy shouldn’t have passed a psych eval before the academy. Way to jumpy. I was once chasing a guy who spun around and went under his jacket like he had a gun. I went under my coat and had a J frame halfway out of the holster. His eyes got wide and he came up empty. Neither he or any bystanders ever saw my gun. In the finger snap it was fully back in the holster. It never made it completely out. This guy would have had him dead. I was civilian security and believe it or not I had mentally gone through such a circumstance a hundred or more times just in case but until then didn’t know if the mental gyrations were successful. It’s kind of like dry firing, it does some good to mentally practice.

  23. As a LEO what many fail to see is that he is being brought to charges and held accountable as he should. When that stops happening in a department/area then you have real issues.
    The failure to do the basic things such as announcement of your presence shows some issues with both him and the department.
    Race has zero to do with this despite the wedge they are driving. A person was killed that didn’t need it. You can’t make that any worse with additives.

  24. As has been stated here in comments, this person should never have made it through the academy. This is more than half Fort Worth PD’s fault. Decades ago police academies were STRESS academies. We were placed in complex, intense situations constantly and the unfit were weeded out. These millennials have more of a college campus experience than para-military vetting and training. This guy was SCARED! While officer safety is important, if you are scared you shouldn’t’ be a cop. Add that this was likely a negligent discharge (finger inside the trigger guard) and two factors present themselves: BAD firearms training (ENTIRELY on Fort Worth PD along with bad vetting!) and the type of handguns now commonly used. DA/SA semi-autos will always lessen the likelihood of neg discharges, just as DA revolvers did previously. But the “expert” push to SA only pistols highlights the problem when combined with this case’s obvious poor firearm training. SAs in expert hands are fine, but how many cops are “experts?”

    • “stress” academies are stupid and make for bad cops. Standing scared stiff while someone screams at you and then doing pushups whenever they say boo might make for good grunts but it does not make for good training or good cops. God help us if a bad guy ever yells “get on your face and give me 50” during a domestic, I bet some cops would drop right there.

      Thought-out stress training, on the other hand, can be very helpful. Force on force encounters with simunitions, roleplaying and high stakes, running to an encounter and having to shoot (or not shoot) when out of breath- all things that are much closer to what cops actually have to do. But get that silly wanna be Marine stuff outta here, the last thing we need is for every cop to be trying to be GySgt. Hartman because ‘that’s what I had to go through when I joined.’

  26. Charging someone for Murder when it clearly wasn’t is polluting the Justice System, its Manslaughter at best. Murder is a premeditated act.

    • In some states “manslaughter” is basically negligent homicide: you fired your gun out the window at random and it hit a bystander, or drove home drunk and mowed down a crossing guard, for instance. You didn’t mean to kill someone but you didn’t exercise even the most basic caution. In some states they call his charge”involuntary homicide” or ‘negligent homicide’, but it’s the same thing.
      Killing someone intentionally without good cause is charged as murder, premeditated or not: You got into an argument at a bar and shot someone. You didn’t plan the killing, but you definitely pulled the trigger without a good legal reason. Premeditation is grounds for a more severe charge but it’s all still murder.

      That having been said, it’s possible that the DA would allow this goober to plead down to manslaughter in a plea deal. This doesn’t speak to the facts of the case but just the DA’s priorities of time and politics.

      • No, second at most. First Degree involves premeditation and motive. Second can lack both, but still involve intent.

        Regardless, we all know that we’re responsible for whatever happens after the bullet leaves the barrel.

        • He said murder is premeditated. I was explaining he is describing a degree of murder. Unjustified homicide has various names…

          In Texas, the law defines things differently than other states. They even have different punishments for whom is murdered. As in those that kill police are in greater trouble than a police officer killing a non government worker.

          Texas is a messed up state. They play by the old rules. They pretend to be good people like Canadians do. They are closer to a communists police state than California.

        • Interestingly enough, a friend asked me over the weekend if I’d consider moving from CA to TX.

          I said, “no way…I’ll take my chances here…TX is simply a different side of the crazy coin.”

  27. It’s the result of officer safety and “warrior mindset” . They’re not supposed to be soldiers. Hell yes if you’re a soldier you sneak up the objective and shoot the lady through the glass. That’s not policing. There are 800k police officers in the US and every year around 50 die from violent assault. Like everything else in our bs politics it is blown out of proportion

  28. Part of the problem here is the “war on cops” started by our former communist dictator Barack Hussein Obama.
    The assassination of police that was encouraged under his watch was inexcusable.
    Because of that, the police are jumpy as crickets. Knowing that a certain part of our society is “gunning” for them, puts them in heightened threat mode all the time.
    Of course the knee jerk shootings are a result.
    This is the goal of the communist left. It creates a feedback loop that further divides the policed from the policed. It puts out LE community in a damed if you do, damed if you don’t scenario.
    Unfortunately it’s the Leftist Elected leadership that makes policy that the police must enforce. It’s part of the Leftists goals to destroy our country. They make ever over-reaching laws that subject the people to totalitarian oppression – like felony charges towards a child for a “finger gun” at school (This is tyranny). Then they force the police to enforce these out of control laws in abuse of the people. It’s no wonder that there is a rift between the populace and police.
    The solution is:
    1. stop criminalizing stupid stuff – only serious crimes should be crimes.
    2. People – treat police with kindness and respect – stop abusing police.
    3. Police – treat people with kindness and respect – stop abusing the people.

    The US vs Them has to stop.

    Really comes down to people need to find Jesus – receive His forgiveness, and live for Him.

    God Help our country.

    • So you were blaming President Obama for this LEO shooting this innocent woman through her window?

      And without citing any specific act of Barack Obama’s that brought about the situation?

      Fascinating.

        • So you post falsehoods in order to ‘trigger’ people?

          Interesting, how does this bring you satisfaction? Which of your internal needs are you meeting by posting deceptive messages, and have you tried therapy to resolve these issues?

        • “So you post falsehoods in order to ‘trigger’ people?”

          That’s *exactly* what you do, ‘miner’. Go ahead, deny it like the sack of lying sh!t you are… 😉

  29. Press “white cop shoots black woman” further pushing the hate amongst the two of us throughout this country. That assclown was called to that house because the door was open and he shoots a woman inside threw the window?? He never even went to the door, he never asked a single question, he never identified himself, he went in the backyard threw a closed gate. Who the hell trains these shithead??

  30. If they have their ducks in a row this was a good way to calm the situation down. If they don’t, and they’re shooting from the hip (so to speak) because they want to lay down as many charges as possible to shut up the narrative… that’s how you lose cases.

  31. I’m not a LEO, but come from a family with LEO’s in just about every generation from pre WW 1 on, and count numerous former and current serving LEO’s as close friends, as such, this shooting and the subsequent trial are going to be a media circus. According to what I’ve read so far, this fellow is still a Rookie (April of 2019 from one report), and that alone will open another whole line of theories as to why this occurred. This case is going to run the gamut from A to Z, concerning everything from racial prejudice to training/schooling deficits, and issues we’ve not even thought about or considered.
    If he was in fact still a rookie, when does the department’s policy or practice of partnering with a FTO end? Obviously too soon in this case. Murder in the First degree will be difficult to prove if that is what he’s been charged with.
    I disagree with the Department’s termination, because it’s an obvious attempt at diverting attention away from condemnation of their training and procedure policies, as well as a blatant attempt at determining guilt before a trial. This tragedy happened on department time and the department should be on trial as well, because the department’s culture (preconceived opinions among officers that may run counter to stated policy, yet exist nonetheless) needs brought out into the light.
    I’m sure others may disagree with my observations, and that there are other factors I’ve not voiced or thought of, or I’ve been misinformed about, but to me, this failure of the system needs a thorough and unbiased review. Real Justice demands it.

    • TX does not have 1st and 2nd degree murder. They have murder and capital murder. Murder requires “the defendant must have knowingly and willingly caused the death of another person.”

      Under TX law, this appears to be the correct charge.

  32. The Dallas Morning News is reporting that the affidavit used to arrest him states that her nephew (who was inside the house) states that she had a pistol and aimed it at the officer.

      • 1) If you point a weapon at a cop, he/she is going to shoot you. The officer was clearly poorly trained which led to a tragic confrontation.

        2) In Texas, you do not need a permit to possess a handgun in your own home. Unless you are a a prohibited person under federal law, you can own a firearm.

    • Aaron was poking around in her back yard like a prowler, unannounced, no way for the home owner to know that it wasn’t a prowler indenting to cause her harm.

      • “…no way for the home owner to know that it wasn’t a prowler indenting to cause her harm.”

        Since we jes’ chewin’ thuh fat, ‘roun here….

        The cops came because a neighbor reported the front door open. If the victim was concerned about a “prowler”, why was there no 911 call from her?

        It gets curiouser and curiouser.

  34. Any particular reason we are manifestly ignoring the reported news out of Dallas that a witness claims the woman pointed a gun at the cops?

    Have seen two references here, but no one is picking up.

    • An unidentified prowler in the bushes at 2 am deserves to have a gun pointed at them.

      There’s no excuse for the cops not rolling up, turning on their lights, going to the front door, and ringing the doorbell. Like they should have.

    • We already mentioned the possibility she had a gun and used it to protect herself and others.

      Texas is still considered a red state. There’s castle and stand your ground laws, even against police, especially when police are breaking the law. The 2nd Amendment isn’t protected/acknowledged in Texas, but she had a CCW and was in her domicile. She had every right to protect the 8 year old and herself from a man breaking the law on her property. Unless Texas is now the new California, where you are not allowed to exercise your human rights and cops charge/kill you when you do.

      Keep in mind an 8 year old was interviewed by police and they claim he made that statement, but the police and mayor say if she did what the 8 year old said she was in the right and other Texans would react the same way. Even if the 8 year old was forced/tricked into saying that, it does not matter because the police broke the rules and law by turning it into a “Make my day, punk!” situation.

      This is why I keep mentioning the NRA.

      The NRA claims to be for the ownership of guns and the use of them in self defense. They say they support black Americans owning guns. They say they support women owning guns. They say they support Democrats owning guns. They say they support home owners using guns to kill home invaders.

      We now have another black American, with a CCW, who was shot dead by police when they were doing nothing to justify/warrant their death.

      In the other two situations the persons shot were black men: one shot in his car in front of a child and a woman, the other shot in the back of the head when trying to save others in a mall from a gangster shooting. Neither cop was arrested and convicted. In those cases the NRA did not want to say anything negative about government or make any comment at all because one of the guys smoked weed and the other dressed like a typical young black male. Now we have a black highly educated woman trying to protect an 8 year old she was baby sitting from people sneaking into her backyard and approaching her window like mall ninjas.

      What is the NRA going to say now? What is Colion Noir going to do now? Is the NRA going to join with the black community to protect Ms. Jefferson and other Texans? Are they going to fight for justice for an American gunned down in front of an 8 year old she was trying to protect from criminals? Or does the NRA care more about the government than the people?

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsZUv2IMyvk

      • This is a great opportunity for 2A supporters to show black America and Democrats that we care about their human rights and their life. That we don’t side with the oppressive violent government, we side with the people. That gun ownership and self preservation is for everyone not just white men.

        If we blame the innocent woman for her death black Americans are going to say, “See! I told you so…” If we say the cops did the right thing we will lose more of our rights by helping the Democrats in their argument.

        We can’t allow the government to make us less safe for keeping and bearing a weapon. We should be more safe for owning a gun. We don’t need more bad cops, we need more guns in good people’s hands.

      • Ok, let’s try this…

        It is night, unknown to you, a cop is stalking around outside your home. You go to a window, see a “prowler”, and point your gun at the dark shape. The “dark shape” immediately fires, and kills you. Are you saying the dark shape (a cop) had no legitimate concern about being shot, and responded accordingly?

        Or, this….

        Walking my dog late at night. Dog slips the leash and runs along the side of your house. While walking along your exterior wall, looking for the dog, You are now standing at the window, see me, and point your gun in my face while standing on the other side of the glass. I see a deadly threat, and shoot first.

        Now what?

        • Firstly, the woman was within her legal rights. Second, she was not capable of identifying the threat because the deadly threat was wearing black, in the cover of darkness, was shinning a very bright light in her eyes and she had no time to respond/think as she peeked out the window.

          When you commit a crime you cannot use self defense as an legal argument. So if you go into a bank to rob it, then the security guard raises his gun to shoot you dead and you shoot them, you cannot claim self defense in the court of law when you are being charged with the murder of the security guard.

          The cops in that situation broke policy and law. What you think is logical does not matter at all because the rules are the rules. Cops cannot be vigilantes, although they get away with it more than anyone else. What they did was more akin to a military assault on a compound than a police affair, thus he is charged as the criminal he is.

          America is in peace time. There is no place for “operator” tactics and summarily executing armed “enemy combatants” during general policing. I know they are trained that way, but America’s “law enforcement” are still civilians in peacetime policing individual civilians under law.

          This woman was not at fault. She was a legal gun owner with a license to carry who was defending a child. I will not side with the communist government on this murder. It could have been me, it could have been you. I will not give them a pass to murder me because I have a gun. Doesn’t matter the gender nor race. I don’t want any more innocent people to end up like the Tuttles, Botham and Atatiana.

          • Cop is walking around in your yard. What law is broken? Cop is walking around in your yard in the dark of night. What law is broken?

            Front door was unsecured. Neighbor called police to check on it. Police “clear” the perimeter to ensure they cannot be ambushed while standing on the front porch. Possibility home has been invaded, and bad guys are inside. Suddenly a person appears at the window and points a gun at the black object. Neither party is involved in a criminal act. Cop believes, has reason to believe he is about to be shot.

            Now what?

        • Those two cops did not have lawful authority to open the closed gate where the woman was murdered. They broke policy by not announcing they were police. They did not attempt to contact the residents. The superior officer did not tell the rookie he cannot lawfully enter the backyard, she allowed him to break the law and violate someone’s rights in her presence, which there is a law for that specific thing.

          The doors were in fact closed. The house has double doors. The main doors were opened. The entire point of having double doors is so you can leave one open and not have bugs, animals or people enter while air can. There was no sign of a crime.

          I literally do the same thing this woman did. I leave my windows and door open at times, more so the windows. I don’t have air conditioning. At night it gets very hot inside if there is no wind blowing, so I have to open the door to create different pressure within the home, even if it’s 2 AM.

          I also play video games in the back room — which is too far to hear a knock at the front door — because if someone is to do a home invasion I won’t be feet from the door they enter. So I lock my bedroom door just in case someone decided to enter through the front. I am prepared to take care of that situation, as I already have a strategy for it specifically. However, I never thought that the cops would illegally enter my closed gates to make it to the back of my house stealthy, then shoot me through my window because they can see me with a gun minding my business. I have now changed my setup after seeing what happened to Atatiana.

          I have had police and people come into my backyard at night looking around.

          The police don’t turn down their radios and they don’t park down the street. So when they are in my yard I can hear radio traffic, that let’s me know it’s the cops. I can’t see who they are in the darkness, but I can tell by the radios they are cops, which changes how I behave in that situation.

          When a person comes into my yard and I don’t see a cop car and I don’t hear radios, I prepare to fight that person to the death. Lights go out, offense is prepared and I situate myself defensively for engagement. I watch them until they leave. So far I haven’t needed to fight them.

          Now I have to worry that cops are the ones breaking the law and I will have to engage them before they murder me. I have to increase my offense just in case because millennial cops think they are badass operators dropping bad guys like in COD.

          • It would be easy to argue that the cops had every right to search the property because the call was to check on an open door (which apparently was unusual enough to spawn a call from a neighbor).

            There is no argument about a person having a gun in their own home.

            Violating technique policy is not violating law.

            The suspicious homeowner could/should have called 911 when first deciding something was wrong outside her house.

            So, now we come to the four rules: the homeowner violated them (know your target, and what is behind it). The homeowner could verify neither (waving a gun at a window hoping to “scare them off” doesn’t exempt one from the four rules). This requires us to venture into whether or not a person in possession of a gun should have been strongly introduced to “the four rules”, prior to obtaining the gun. Answer: Yes. Mandatory? No. Act of personal responsibility? Absolutely.

      • You make an excellent point by asking why the NRA is silent on the issue of innocent CCW holders being shot by police, when those CCW holders are black. I submitted your question to the NRA-ILA, hoping to get a response. Thanks!

    • Excellent points you made. I have also noticed that Millennial cops tend to identify with the Criminals or Racial groups, the Fat ones or Female ones are constantly “In Fear” for their lives & Sadly Ex-Military cops who saw Combat are Instinctively Trigger Happy because of their Training which makes All of these people not well suited for Police work. Additionally I have dealt with Sheriffs Deputies who are bordeline uneducated Thugs who have No Clue what the Law is. Just for the record I generally Support Good Cops & Veterans & think Combat Veterans are Well Suited to Firefighter positions due to their ability to Suppress Fear. But your points are True – No Standards or Low Standards in Many jurisdictions throughout the US.

  36. “Former Fort Worth Cop Aaron Dean Charged With Murder in Killing of Atatiana Jefferson”

    Good, as it should be…he needs to end up in Huntsville…

  37. They screwed the pooch, when they did not announce themselves at the git go. Two things not to like about this, first there were two cops there so if in fact a felony was committed the partner should also be charged. Second bail for a murder charge, give me a break, anyone of us shoot someone thru a window, it be at least a year, if, we lucky for a trial, even if found not guilty we gonna do 15 months with no sugar in the coffee, using breakfast pancake syrup to make it digestible.

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