Wednesday marks the three-year anniversary of Atatiana Jefferson’s death. Now-former Fort Worth police officer Aaron Dean is accused of shooting and killing Jefferson through a window in her mother’s home.
In 2019, police were dispatched to the home for a welfare check when a neighbor saw a door left open overnight.
Because of the pandemic and scheduling, Dean, who faces a murder charge has been postponed several times and is set to start in December.
“The community needs closure and so do we,” Fort Worth Police Chief Neil Noakes said. “We are definitely looking forward to seeing this trial take place and the longer it takes, the more the community becomes frustrated.”
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Noakes, who was not chief at the time of the murder, said Jefferson was a role model for young people in the community.
“This is also a time for us to honor Atatiana Jefferson, her legacy, the way she lived, the example she set,” Noakes said.
Mattie Parker has also become mayor in the three years since Jefferson’s death.
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“We are pro-police and pro-community at the same time and I’m really focused after this trial is over, no matter what the result is, how to we lift up Atatiana’s name and really focus on the community to make sure that nothing like that ever happens again in our city,” Parker said.
“I want to make sure that we honor her life as well as we make a better police department so that it’s not just a life that’s gone,” Fort Worth City Council member Chris Nettles said. “We have changed policies and we have created a better transparency with our police department because of that. And so, three years later, I think we are better today than we were then.”
