Atatiana Jefferson's 11-year-old nephew testifies at cop's murder trial trends now
The young nephew of Atatiana Jefferson testified that he thought he was dreaming when his aunt fell to the floor after being shot by a cop through a bedroom window of her Texas home.
'I was thinking is it a dream,' Zion Carr said on Monday, his voice cracking. 'She was crying and shaking.'
Carr, now 11, who was playing video games with his aunt that night in October 2019, told the court that the doors to her home were open because they were trying to get smoke out after cooking hamburgers.
A concerned neighbor saw the open door and called for a welfare check, which led to the tragic shooting.
Jefferson, 28, was holding a gun when she went to investigate a noise, but never raised it to point at the police officer who fatally shot her through the window, her nephew testified on the stand on Monday.
Defense attorneys contended that the child said otherwise immediately after the shooting.
The child's testimony touched on an issue at the heart of the long-delayed case charging Aaron Dean with Jefferson's killing: whether the Fort Worth police officer saw Jefferson's gun before he shot her.
Zion Carr, 11, the nephew of Atatiana Jefferson, testified during the murder trial of former Fort Worth Police Officer Aaron Dean on Monday, that he thought he was dreaming when his aunt fell to the floor after being shot through the window of her Texas home
Atatiana Jefferson, 28, was holding a gun when she went to investigate a noise, but never raised it to point at the police officer who fatally shot her through the window, her nephew said
Atatiana Jefferson, 28, was holding a gun when she went to investigate a noise, but never raised it to point at the police officer who fatally shot her through the window, her nephew said
The high-profile story of Jefferson's death gained national attention and spurred protests against police brutality across North Texas.
Dean quit and was charged with murder two days after killing the 28-year-old while responding to a call about an open front door on October 12, 2019.
Body-camera footage showed that neither Dean nor the other responding officer identified themselves as police at the house.
Dean's attorney, Miles Brissette, said the officer opened fire after seeing the silhouette of Jefferson with a gun in the window and a green laser light pointed at him. Prosecutors told the jurors that the evidence would show otherwise.
That night, Jefferson was playing video games with her nephew, Zion Carr, who told a court Monday that his aunt pulled out a gun after hearing suspicious noises behind the house.
Carr, then 8, said the gun was only ever pointed 'down' but he acknowledged not remembering parts of what happened.
'She just held it next to her side, she just like, she didn´t point it up, she just kept it next to her,' he told prosecutors, who said the child previously said his aunt had pulled the gun up 'a little bit.'
Carr added that he didn't look up from his Nintendo Switch because she said the noise may have just been a raccoon.
Seconds later, she fell to the floor and was crying and shaking, her nephew said.
When officers arrived on the scene and took Carr to the police car, the boy, who was only wearing his underwear, said he was cold and confused about what was happening.
'She started crying and after that two police officers came and got me,' Carr said. 'I was thinking 'Is it a dream?''
He said an officer gave him a shirt and that he fell asleep in the police car. When he woke up at another location, he said he was asked questions about the shooting.
At this point, he still didn't know if his aunt was OK, he said.
'I wasn't upset, I was confused because I didn't know if… it was a
