After closing arguments, jury deliberations began Wednesday (Dec. 14) in the murder trial of a former Texas cop who fatally shot Atatiana Jefferson, a 28-year-old Black woman, at her home in 2019.

CBS News reports that Judge George Gallagher told the Tarrant County jurors that they could consider two charges against former Fort Worth police officer Aaron Dean, either murder or the lessor charge of manslaughter.

Jefferson was playing a video game with her then 8-year-old nephew, Zion Carr, on Oct. 12, 2019, at 2:25 a.m., when she pulled a gun from her purse after hearing a suspicious noise in the backyard.

Dean, who is white, was one of two officers responding to a nonemergency call from a neighbor about Jefferson’s open front door. Dean testified that he was standing outside a bedroom window when he saw a figure pointing a gun at him. He yelled an order to drop the gun and fired a single shot through the window.

The two sides dispute whether Jefferson pointed her weapon at Dean. What’s not disputed is that Dean never identified himself as an officer.

Police body-camera footage confirmed his failure to identify himself, which he admitted on the witness stand, adding that his actions that night were “bad police work.”

Much of the case hinges on competing claims of whether Dean knew Jefferson was armed when he shot her. In opening statements, the prosecution argued that Dean never saw Jefferson’s gun and was too quick to pull the trigger.

“If you can’t feel safe in your own home, where can you feel safe?" the prosecutor asked jurors in closing arguments, local station WFAA reports. According to the prosecutor, Dean went to the nonemergency call looking for action that night, adding that Jefferson paid the price for Dean’s training and policy violations.

“The power you have today is to hold him responsible, it’s to tell them [Atatiana’s family] that it all wasn’t in vain, it’s to say that she [Atatiana] matters. They matter, eastside matters. To say that we protect everyone," the prosecutor continued.

At the start of the trial, the defense team said it intended to prove that Dean fired in self-defense.

“A tragedy doesn’t always equal a crime. It doesn’t always equal a law violation," Dean’s attorney, Bob Gill, told jurors in his closing argument, according to WFAA.

"She [Atatiana] pointed a firearm at a Fort Worth police officer... the rights stop there. It's a crime and it's an unlawful act,” Gill added.

The defense attorney then turned his attention to a discrepancy in Zion’s testimony. He was the only witness inside the house with Jefferson. On the witness stand, Zion, 11, testified that he did not see his aunt point her gun at the officers. He said Jefferson  held her gun down by her side and that he didn’t see the officers in the backyard.

During the trial, the defense rebutted his testimony, pointing to his earlier account of the incident, recorded on video about two hours after the shooting. At that time, Zion stated that his aunt pointed her gun at the window and that he observed the officer’s badge, gun and flashlight through the window.

“Zion Carr’s testimony took a different turn," Gill told the jury in closing arguments, according to WFAA. “You could tell he was under a lot of pressure and a lot of time had passed. Zion succumbed to the pressure and testified differently.”

S. Lee Merritt, an attorney for Jefferson’s family, told CNN in 2020 that Zion suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.

In closing, the prosecutor said Jefferson’s "only crime was love and protection for her nephew, not pointing a gun at a Fort Worth police officer.”