A former Texas police officer defended fatally shooting a Black woman at her home but also admitted to “bad police work.”

Aaron Dean testified Monday (Dec. 12) at his murder trial that Atatiana Jefferson, 28, had a gun “pointed directly at me” when he fired a fatal shot through a bedroom window of her home in 2019, CBS News reports.

Dean and his partner, Fort Worth Police Officer Carol Darch, were responding to a nonemergency call from a neighbor about an open door at Jefferson’s home. Dean, who quit the police force after the shooting, never identified himself as a police officer and didn’t administer first aid to Jefferson.

The prosecutor alleged in opening statements that Dean did not see Jefferson holding a gun in the split-second before shooting through a back window, CNN reported.

“This is not a circumstance where they’re staring at the barrel of a gun and he had to defend himself against that person or to protect his partner,” Tarrant County prosecutor Ashlea Deener said, according to CNN.

Ex-officer’s testimony

On the witness stand Monday, Dean told the jury that Jefferson’s house was dark except for light coming from the opened front door when he and Darch arrived, WFAA reported. Dean claimed that he had to get up close to the door to see inside.

“Objects were just strewn all over the floor, it looked ransacked, it was a mess,” Dean stated.

In earlier testimony, Jefferson’s nephew, Zion Carr, who was 8 at the time of the shooting, told the jury that the door was open because he and his aunt had burned hamburgers in the kitchen and were airing out the house when the police arrived at about 2:25 a.m. on Oct. 12, 2019. The two of them were home alone, playing video games.

Dean testified that he and Darch went from the front of the house to the side and back to investigate. The ex-cop said he was standing at the back of the house when he saw a silhouette in the window.

“Well, I thought we had a burglar, so I stepped back, straightened up and drew my weapon. I couldn’t see the hands. So, I drew my weapon intending to tell that person to show me their hands,” Dean testified.

A tearful Dean told jurors that he shouted at the person to “put up your hands, show me your hands.” The former officer claimed that he “saw the barrel of the gun, and when I saw that gun pointing at me… I shot a single shot from my service weapon.”

After firing through the bedroom window, Dean testified that he “heard her scream and saw her fall.” He and Darch went into the house, saw Zion and found Jefferson’s loaded gun near her feet.

According to WFAA, it took just one minute and 17 seconds from the moment Dean arrived at the house to fatally shooting her.

‘Bad Police Work’

On cross-examination, prosecutor Dale Smith underscored that Dean did not see the hands of the silhouette in the window nor alert his partner there was a gun, or perform CPR on Jefferson.

“I know you’re crying now, but you weren’t crying when you decided not to administer CPR to Atatiana,” Smith said to Dean, who admitted to “bad police work,” including not announcing themselves as officers after observing no signs of a break in.

Zion, 11, testified on Dec. 5 that his aunt retrieved a gun from her purse when they heard a noise in the backyard but he did not see her point the gun at the officers.

However, the defense rebutted his testimony by playing a video of Zion’s account of the incident recorded about two hours after the shooting. At that time, he 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 testified that he did not recall that earlier statement. S. Lee Merritt, an attorney for Jefferson’s family, told CNN in 2020 that Zion suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Jefferson is a 2014 graduate of Xavier University who worked in pharmaceutical equipment sales. She had moved in with her ailing mother to care for her.

If convicted, Dean faces a sentence of five to 99 years in prison.