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U.S. NEWS Tuesday 15 OcTOber 2019
Texas officer charged with murder, resigns after shooting

By JAKE BLEIBERG and JILL Police went to Jefferson's
BLEED home about 2:25 a.m. after
Associated Press a neighbor called a non-
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — emergency line to report
A white Fort Worth police a door ajar. In a statement
officer who shot and killed over the weekend, the de-
a black woman through a partment said officers saw
back window of her home someone near a window
while responding to a call inside the home and that
about an open front door one of them drew his gun
was charged with murder and fired after "perceiving
on Monday after resigning a threat."
from the force. The video showed Dean
Aaron Dean, 34, was shouting, "Put your hands
jailed Monday evening on up! Show me your hands!"
$200,000 bond after the and immediately firing.
police chief said he acted Jefferson was staying up
without justification would late, playing video games
have been fired if he hadn't with her nephew, when she
quit. was killed, according to the
Police bodycam video family's attorney.
showed Dean approach- As for what, exactly, led Amber Carr, left, wipes a tear as her sister Ashley Carr, center,
talks about their sister, Atatiana Jefferson, as their brother, Adar-
ing the door of the home Dean to open fire, the po- ius Carr, right and attorney Lee Merritt, standing, listen during a
where Atatiana Jeffer- lice chief said: "I cannot news conference Monday, Oct. 14, 2019 in downtown Dallas.
son, 28, was caring for her make sense of why she had Associated Press
8-year-old nephew early to lose her life." The chief
Saturday. He then walked said Dean resigned without fense to use deadly force piled up in the street.
around the side of the talking to internal affairs in- in their homes. The law was The police chief said Dean This undated photo provided
house, pushed through a vestigators. backed at the time by the could face state charges by the Tarrant County Jail
gate into the fenced-off The video included images National Rifle Association and that he had submitted shows Aaron Dean.
backyard and fired through of a gun inside a bedroom. and is similar to "stand your a case to the FBI to review Associated Press
the glass a split-second af- Kraus said he did not know ground" measures across for possible federal civil
ter shouting at Jefferson to whether Jefferson was the U.S. that say a person rights charges. Nearly two-thirds of the de-
show her hands. holding the weapon. But he has no duty to retreat from Dean has not yet hired an partment's 1,100 officers
Dean was not heard iden- said the mere fact she had an intruder. attorney but will have one are white, just over 20% are
tifying himself as police a gun shouldn't be consid- Fort Worth is about 30 miles provided with financial Hispanic, and about 10%
on the video, and Interim ered unusual in Texas. (50 kilometers) west of Dal- support from the state's are black. The city of nearly
Police Chief Ed Kraus said "We're homeowners in Tex- las, where another high- largest police union, the 900,000 people is about
there was no sign Dean or as," the police chief said. profile police shooting oc- Combined Law Enforce- 40% white, 35% Hispanic
the other officer who re- "Most of us, if we thought curred last year. ment Associations of Texas, and 19% black.
sponded even knocked on we had somebody outside In that case, white Dallas according to Charley Wilki- Calling the shooting "a piv-
the front door. our house that shouldn't be officer Amber Guyger shot son, executive director. otal moment in our city,"
"Nobody looked at this and we had access to a and killed her black neigh- Relations with the public the mayor said she was
video and said that there's firearm, we would be act- bor Botham Jean inside have been strained after ordering a top-to-bottom
any doubt that this officer ing very similarly to how his own apartment after other recent Fort Worth po- review of the police force
acted inappropriately," she was acting." Kraus said Guyger said she mistook his lice shootings. In June, the and vowed to "rebuild a
Kraus said. that, in hindsight, releasing place for her own. Guyger, department released foot- sense of trust within the city
Earlier in the day, Jefferson's the images of the weapon 31, was sentenced this age of officers killing a man and with our police depart-
family had demanded that was "a bad thing to do." month to 10 years in prison. who ignored repeated or- ment."
Dean, a member of the Mayor Betsy Price called A large crowd gathered ders to drop his handgun. Jefferson was a 2014 grad-
force for 1½ years, be fired the gun "irrelevant." outside Jefferson's home He was the fourth person uate of Xavier University in
and arrested. "Atatiana was in her own Sunday night for a vigil af- Fort Worth police had fired New Orleans and earned
"Why this man is not in home, caring for her 8-year- ter demonstrations briefly upon in 10 days. a bachelor's degree in bi-
handcuffs is a source of old nephew. She was a vic- stopped traffic on Interstate Of the nine officer-involved ology. She was working in
continued agitation for this tim," Price said. 35. A single bullet hole was shootings so far this year in pharmaceutical equip-
family and for this commu- Texas has had a "castle visible in the window of the Fort Worth, five targeted ment sales and was con-
nity," family attorney Lee doctrine" law on the books single-story, freshly painted African Americans and six sidering going to medical
Merritt said, hours before since 2007 that gives peo- purple home, and floral resulted in death, accord- school, according to the
Dean was booked into jail. ple a stronger legal de- tributes and stuffed animals ing to department data. family's lawyer.q

Bosnia seeks extradition of Missouri man in war crimes case

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A former oner in 1992. Post-Dispatch reported. ed Sept. 17, 1992, by Muslim at a different location, ac-
military policeman in Bos- Adem Kostjerevac, 58, who An extradition request filed forces who surrounded her cording to the request. The
nia who has been living in lives in unincorporated by the government alleges village. The arrest occurred multiple assaults caused
Missouri for about 17 years southern St. Louis County, that Kostjerevac, who during the Bosnian war that her to miscarry, and when
is facing extradition to his will appear in federal court served with the 1st Mus- raged from 1992 until 1995. she was released in a pris-
native country, where he is Tuesday in St. Louis for a lim Brigade of the army of The woman, who was a oner exchange on Feb. 5,
accused of raping a preg- hearing on an extradition Bosnia and Herzegovina, neighbor of Kosterjerevac's, 1993, she weighed just 81
nant Serbian woman who request from the Bosnian raped the woman in a small said she was later raped pounds, according to the
was being held as a pris- government, The St. Louis village after she was arrest- several times by a guard request.q