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BOMBSHELL NEW CLAIM in Fort Worth cop shooting of 28 year-old woman in her own home with little nephew. · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:06
Speaker 1: Today on Crime Stories, we head to Fort Worth, Texas.
0:10
Speaker 1: Who's going on there? Wherever? Fult doors have been opened
0:13
Speaker 1: since ten o'clock and I haven't seen anybody moving around?
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Speaker 1: Is not normal for them? Half both for the doors
0:19
Speaker 1: opened this time? Right? Okay, you know if anyone is inside,
0:23
Speaker 1: I'm not sure, joining Nancy Grace. Darryl Cohen, former Assistant
0:28
Speaker 1: District Attorney Fulton County, Georgia, now a criminal defense lawyer.
0:32
Speaker 1: James shell Nutt twenty seven years Atlanta Metro Major Case
0:36
Speaker 1: detective SWAT officer, retired doctor Katherine Maloney with Nickel City
0:40
Speaker 1: Forensics and Medical Examiner, Erie County, New York. And doctor
0:44
Speaker 1: Carlo Marie Manley, clinical psychologist and author of Joy from Fear.
0:48
Speaker 1: And reporter Dave Mack from Crime online dot Com Climb
1:01
Speaker 1: Stories with Nancy Grace. Don't work. Police operator Amy seventy
1:11
Speaker 1: three with seat dress. I'm calling about my neighbor. Okay,
1:16
Speaker 1: we're a little three East Allen Avenues. Okay, twelve uh
1:20
Speaker 1: three East Allen Avenue? What's going on there? Where? The
1:23
Speaker 1: front doors has been open since ten o'clock and I
1:25
Speaker 1: haven't seen anybody moving around. It's not normal for them.
1:28
Speaker 1: An both of the doors open this time. I'm okay,
1:32
Speaker 1: you know if anyone is inside, I'm not sure both
1:35
Speaker 1: of the calls were there, okay, he ain't there in
1:39
Speaker 1: the driveway or both of cars in the driveway years okay,
1:42
Speaker 1: can't you give me a description like a color of
1:44
Speaker 1: the vehicles? Were ones? White ones? Bo? The white one?
1:48
Speaker 1: Is it today? Inn? Or a seebee? Okay? Little today is? Okay?
1:55
Speaker 1: And what's your name? James Smith? And what's here? Tell us?
1:58
Speaker 1: I number got um and they usually home at this time.
2:03
Speaker 1: They use your home, but they've never had both of
2:05
Speaker 1: the fundings open their lights on on my cocking See
2:08
Speaker 1: street through the house when my sister will me up.
2:10
Speaker 1: She started across the street from then my live opposite
2:12
Speaker 1: side of my sister. Okay, and raddress actually giving me
2:15
Speaker 1: twelve h three that's their address correct? Yes, okay, well
2:19
Speaker 1: I have an officer come by. They're already being especial now, okay, okay,
2:24
Speaker 1: for sure. I mean, if there's no normal, you can
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Speaker 1: have both the duores open this week for a long ya. Okay,
2:29
Speaker 1: thank you so much. You are hearing a concerned nambor
2:31
Speaker 1: James Smith calling nine one one about a welfare check
2:35
Speaker 1: It ends with a then Fort Worth police officer gunning
2:42
Speaker 1: down a twenty eight year old woman in her own home.
2:48
Speaker 1: I'm Nancy Grayson. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for
2:50
Speaker 1: being with us, with me an all star a lineup.
2:53
Speaker 1: Former prosecutor now defense attorney. You were now to attorney
2:57
Speaker 1: Darryl Cohen out of the Atlanta jurisdiction. Jane Shell notot
3:00
Speaker 1: twenty seven years Metro major case detective SWAT officer now lawyer.
3:05
Speaker 1: Doctor Katherine Maloney Nickel City Forensics Deputy Chief Medical Examiner,
3:10
Speaker 1: Erie County. Doctor Carlo Manley, clinical psychologist, author of Joy
3:14
Speaker 1: from Fear. You can find her at doctor Carlomanley dot com,
3:17
Speaker 1: but now joining me Crime online dot com. Investigative journalist
3:21
Speaker 1: Dave mac Dave. It's almost too much to take in,
3:26
Speaker 1: but hold on. Take a listen to our friend Marcus
3:29
Speaker 1: Moore at ABC News. Police officer killed twenty eight year
3:34
Speaker 1: old Tatiana Jefferson in her own home, sparked by a
3:37
Speaker 1: phone call from a concerned neighbor. He noticed her front
3:40
Speaker 1: door was open and called police on a non emergency
3:43
Speaker 1: line to ask for a welfare check. The dispatcher immediately
3:46
Speaker 1: sending officers to her home, but then the encounter turns deadly.
3:51
Speaker 1: In this bodycam video, the responding officer approaches Jefferson's bedroom
3:55
Speaker 1: window and begins shouting commands, but he has not hurt,
3:58
Speaker 1: identifying himself, I'm feeling it, then fighting one deadly shot
4:02
Speaker 1: through the window. Police say the officer quote perceived a threat,
4:06
Speaker 1: but they suggest that proper procedures may not have been followed.
4:10
Speaker 1: There was no time for her to respond. It was reckless,
4:12
Speaker 1: deadly behavior. A Tatiana's family says her eight year old
4:15
Speaker 1: nephew was in the room playing video games with her
4:18
Speaker 1: when she was shot. When I made that none emerency call,
4:21
Speaker 1: I didn't say it was a burglary. I didn't say
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Speaker 1: people are fighting across the street. I didn't say there's
4:26
Speaker 1: a drug. I didn't say anything that would make them
4:28
Speaker 1: think they needed to do have a gun. All they
4:32
Speaker 1: needed to do was knock on the door. In the
4:33
Speaker 1: door there and now that neighbor feeling overwhelmed with guilt
4:37
Speaker 1: for even calling in a wellness check back to Dave
4:40
Speaker 1: Matt crimal line dot com investigative journalists. What happened, Dave Nancy,
4:44
Speaker 1: This went bad from the very beginning. As you noted
4:47
Speaker 1: it was a non emergency call for a wellness check. Well,
4:50
Speaker 1: the Fort Worth Police Department they don't discern the difference
4:53
Speaker 1: when they send out cops between non emergency and emergency.
4:57
Speaker 1: So the police showed up like it was a math emergency,
5:01
Speaker 1: like they had a real criminal thing going on inside.
5:03
Speaker 1: But this woman, she's twenty eight years old, she's college educated,
5:06
Speaker 1: graduated an in biology degree. She's babysitting her eight year
5:09
Speaker 1: old nephew. They're sitting there on a Saturday morning early,
5:11
Speaker 1: you know, late at night, playing video games, just having fun.
5:14
Speaker 1: She hears these police. Normally, you would park out front
5:17
Speaker 1: and the cops would walk up to the door, ring
5:19
Speaker 1: the doorbell and say, hey police, anything going on, But
5:21
Speaker 1: they didn't. They parked around the side and actually stormed
5:24
Speaker 1: the side of the house. Tatiana, all she did was
5:27
Speaker 1: she stood up. She hears these things going on out
5:30
Speaker 1: so I'd thinking, hey, I got a prowler. It's two
5:31
Speaker 1: thirty in the morning. Why are there people out around
5:34
Speaker 1: the outside of my house. She looks out the window.
5:36
Speaker 1: Nobody identifies themselves as a police officer. Officer Aaron Deane
5:40
Speaker 1: been on a fource a year and a half, never
5:42
Speaker 1: once says police. He never says anything except show me
5:46
Speaker 1: your hands. Within two and a half seconds, she is
5:49
Speaker 1: shot dead in her own home. Nancy, take a listen
5:52
Speaker 1: to our friend Alan Martinet KPI XCBF. The family of
5:57
Speaker 1: a Tatiana Jefferson is outraged that the police officer who
6:01
Speaker 1: shot and killed the twenty eight year old inside her
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Speaker 1: own home is not in handcuffs. This man murdered someone.
6:07
Speaker 1: He should be arrested. Fort Worth Police released body camera
6:10
Speaker 1: video showing the officer, Aaron Dean, outside the house with
6:14
Speaker 1: a flashlight. Video shows he never identified himself as a
6:19
Speaker 1: police officer before firing a shot into a window where
6:22
Speaker 1: Jefferson's eight year old nephew was just steps away. What
6:25
Speaker 1: would have happened if that little boy went to the
6:28
Speaker 1: window instead of his auntie he saw failed? Officer Dean
6:36
Speaker 1: resigned this morning. Had the officer not resigned, I would
6:38
Speaker 1: have fired him for violations of several policies, including our
6:42
Speaker 1: use of force policy. The Fort Worth Police Department has
6:45
Speaker 1: presented the FBI a preliminary case to be reviewed for
6:48
Speaker 1: civil rights violations. The agency's own internal investigating unit is
6:52
Speaker 1: expected to announce Tuesday whether Dean will face criminal charges.
6:57
Speaker 1: Dean has not agreed to be interviewed by police, and
7:00
Speaker 1: of course since that time, the former officer, Aaron Deane,
7:04
Speaker 1: has been charged, has been arrested and has been held
7:08
Speaker 1: in the Tyrant County Jail. Has bond sat at two
7:11
Speaker 1: hundred thousand dollars. Now, what we understand is that the
7:15
Speaker 1: former Fort Worth police officer went to the home to
7:19
Speaker 1: perform a wellness check after a neighboring notice that I
7:22
Speaker 1: taught to. Gianna Jefferson's front door was opened at two
7:25
Speaker 1: thirty in the morning. James Sheldon explained, what is the
7:28
Speaker 1: wellness check? Yeah, well, let's check it something that officers
7:30
Speaker 1: get dispatched to all the time we can in the
7:32
Speaker 1: Uniform division, and they just simply go out and check
7:35
Speaker 1: the welfare of an individualists exactly as it sounds. These
7:38
Speaker 1: cases are often a normal calls that you go to.
7:41
Speaker 1: Most of the time, when you get there, you find
7:43
Speaker 1: out that the person is okay. But you know, commonly
7:45
Speaker 1: a nabel or friend hasn't heard from someone, or they
7:48
Speaker 1: see something out of the ordinary. You're just simply going
7:50
Speaker 1: to check it out just to make sure that different
7:52
Speaker 1: things okay. It's not a it's not an emergency type
7:54
Speaker 1: of call that you would response. So Daryl Cohen, former
7:57
Speaker 1: prosecutor in intercityent and it now defense attorney, Why is
8:02
Speaker 1: it so significant, You're Dave Max stating that this was
8:05
Speaker 1: not a call about a fight. There were no gunshots heard,
8:07
Speaker 1: there was not an argument going on. There wasn't a
8:10
Speaker 1: perceived burglary going on. Why is it significant that this
8:13
Speaker 1: was called in as a welfare check. Well, it's significant
8:16
Speaker 1: because it wasn't the other It wasn't be careful, It
8:20
Speaker 1: wasn't there's a riot. It wasn't there's the dope deal
8:23
Speaker 1: going down. It was merely to see if everything in
8:27
Speaker 1: that house was okay. And why in the world that
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Speaker 1: officer would not have has previously mentioned, not gone to
8:34
Speaker 1: the front door, knocked on the door, rang the doorbell
8:38
Speaker 1: with his weapon at ready just in case, is beyond me.
8:42
Speaker 1: And why in the world why any reasonable person would
8:47
Speaker 1: they see a figure in a window, not identify themselves
8:52
Speaker 1: as a police officer and immediately fire within two seconds.
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Speaker 1: That is not reasonable police, That is not brutality. That
9:01
Speaker 1: is purely instantly murder. Take a listen to her friends
9:05
Speaker 1: at w FAA. This is Eric Alvarez, Well friends and
9:08
Speaker 1: family are understandably outraged tonight. They are demanding answers. They
9:13
Speaker 1: are demanding justice for that young woman who was shot
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Speaker 1: and killed here inside her own home by a police
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Speaker 1: officer that was called here to see if she needed help.
9:23
Speaker 1: In this bodycam footage released by the four fourth Police Department,
9:27
Speaker 1: you do not hear at the officer identify himself as
9:29
Speaker 1: he passes a window and steps through a gate into
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Speaker 1: the backyard. He then sees a figure in a window,
9:35
Speaker 1: draws his gun and fires less than three seconds after
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Speaker 1: demanding to see the person's hands. That person's twenty eight
9:41
Speaker 1: year old a Tatiana Jefferson, who lived in the home
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Speaker 1: with her eight year old nephew. The family is understandably
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Speaker 1: broken hearted. Attorney Lee Merritt, who spoke to Jefferson's family,
9:51
Speaker 1: says the pair were playing video games early in the
9:54
Speaker 1: morning and they heard someone creeping around outside. She went
9:57
Speaker 1: to investigate at the window. An officer was on the
10:01
Speaker 1: other side who shouted commands, and before she had a
10:03
Speaker 1: moment to respond, he sider Today Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.
10:24
Speaker 1: Aaron Dean four or five ninety eight was the officer
10:27
Speaker 1: who responded to the call and fired the shot that
10:29
Speaker 1: killed the Tatiana. He was hired by the department on
10:33
Speaker 1: August twenty first night, twenty seventeen, and commissioned as a
10:36
Speaker 1: licensed peace officer on April thirteenth, twenty eighteen. Despite his resignation,
10:42
Speaker 1: the officer still faces criminal charges from the major case investigation. Additionally,
10:48
Speaker 1: we have also presented a preliminary case to the FBI
10:51
Speaker 1: to review the officers actions for possible civil rights violations.
10:54
Speaker 1: We now know that this officer has been charged the
10:57
Speaker 1: former Fort Worth officer Aaron But how strong is the
11:02
Speaker 1: state's case? What about it, Daryl Cohen? With this bodycam footage?
11:06
Speaker 1: I think that's very powerful. You're right there at the scene,
11:10
Speaker 1: and what is first of all to you, shell Nut?
11:12
Speaker 1: What is bodycam? Bodycam is called POV point of view,
11:16
Speaker 1: which means that it actually shows what the officer is seeing.
11:20
Speaker 1: It can't show everything. Your eyes are going to perceive
11:22
Speaker 1: things a little differently than the camera, have a broader
11:25
Speaker 1: range of view. But it gives a pretty good picture
11:27
Speaker 1: of the officer's point of view. So what about it,
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Speaker 1: Darryl Cohen? How important is the bodycam footage? I think
11:31
Speaker 1: in this instance, the bodycam footage. When you take the
11:34
Speaker 1: footage and the audio and put it together, it's extraordinarily important,
11:39
Speaker 1: and it shows that this police officer should never have
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Speaker 1: done what he did and no longer being a police officer.
11:45
Speaker 1: Being charged with murder is exactly the way it should be.
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Speaker 1: And here's a woman that was doing everything right and
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Speaker 1: she's no longer with us. Tell me the elements of murder,
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Speaker 1: Darryl Cohen, Well, it can happen immediately. They used to
11:58
Speaker 1: say in law school, an abandoned and malignant heart. The
12:02
Speaker 1: reality is he meant to kill, and there was no
12:05
Speaker 1: reason for him to use any type of force, much
12:09
Speaker 1: less deadly force. He was not in a situation where
12:13
Speaker 1: he had to defend himself. He was in a situation
12:16
Speaker 1: where he was in an investigative state, and she is
12:20
Speaker 1: now in a vegetative state. You know, when you said
12:23
Speaker 1: abandoned and malignant heart, very often, as you mentioned in
12:27
Speaker 1: law school, we'd refer to that as, for instance, somebody
12:29
Speaker 1: driving ninety mphs through a street festival, the crowded with
12:34
Speaker 1: people at high noon, when everybody's getting you know, their
12:39
Speaker 1: food at all the kiosks. That's an abandoned or malignant heart.
12:44
Speaker 1: Where you do something so wrong with abandonment of concern
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Speaker 1: for other people. And in this case, he Aaron Deane
12:54
Speaker 1: did not know I taught to Janna Jefferson. He didn't
12:56
Speaker 1: know her. He had meditation to kill her specifically, but
13:04
Speaker 1: he had an abdoned and malignant heart, which will be
13:07
Speaker 1: the states the prosecutor's theory that shooting into an apartment
13:12
Speaker 1: where you have no idea what you're really shooting at
13:15
Speaker 1: shows complete abandoned an You abandon any concern for what
13:22
Speaker 1: you're doing or any outcome of what you are doing. Now,
13:26
Speaker 1: the defense, doctor Carla Manley, clinical psychologist, will probably argue
13:30
Speaker 1: that he thought he was being threatened with that body
13:34
Speaker 1: camp put. It's just going to be really hard to argue, Carla.
13:36
Speaker 1: I agree. Yet, what we have to look at here,
13:39
Speaker 1: Nancy is and this is what I imagine their defense
13:42
Speaker 1: might be, right reptilian brain, so that fight or flight responds,
13:48
Speaker 1: and in this case it's fight. He feels threatened by something.
13:52
Speaker 1: Now here's something I'm wondering about. Haven't seen anything that
13:55
Speaker 1: would tell us that this was the case. What kind
13:57
Speaker 1: of video game was being played? If it was a
14:01
Speaker 1: shoot him up video game? Mike and I don't know
14:03
Speaker 1: that it was, but hearing gunfire could have triggered him
14:08
Speaker 1: if indeed it was that. So I'm trying to think,
14:10
Speaker 1: you know, outside the box here, not at all saying
14:14
Speaker 1: it's ever appropriate to shoot without knowing what's going on,
14:18
Speaker 1: but again as a clinical psychologist and trying to figure
14:21
Speaker 1: out what might have been at play. Also, this officer,
14:24
Speaker 1: age thirty four, right on the job enough, we would
14:28
Speaker 1: imagine his seasoned, how tired was he was he working overtime.
14:32
Speaker 1: So we have to look at all these factors if
14:33
Speaker 1: we're looking at how they might come up with it
14:36
Speaker 1: at a quick defense for him. You just brought up
14:38
Speaker 1: something I had not thought of at all, the possibility
14:42
Speaker 1: that there was a video game. We know they were
14:45
Speaker 1: up playing video games. Was there the sound of gunfire
14:49
Speaker 1: or some other sound in the background that may have
14:52
Speaker 1: triggered him, But Dave Mack, we do know for sure
14:56
Speaker 1: they were playing video games. Nancy. According to the year
15:00
Speaker 1: old nephew of a Tatiana Jefferson, while they were having
15:03
Speaker 1: a great night together, I kind of spend the night party.
15:05
Speaker 1: They were playing video games. And at the time this
15:07
Speaker 1: happened just after two o'clock in the morning, according to
15:10
Speaker 1: the eight year old, they were playing the video game
15:13
Speaker 1: Call of Duty. Now. Call of Duty is a military
15:16
Speaker 1: style shoot him up game. There are all kinds of
15:18
Speaker 1: different scenarios. It's very very intricate in how it works.
15:22
Speaker 1: But the sound effects are amazingly realistic and oftentimes very
15:26
Speaker 1: very loud. Now what you're hearing right now is some
15:43
Speaker 1: audio from the game. It's lots of gunfire, lots of explosions,
15:48
Speaker 1: lots of running around. It's an interactive game. A Tatiana
15:52
Speaker 1: Jefferson was playing this game with her eight year old
15:54
Speaker 1: nephew when the police showed up. Dave Matt crimal line
15:58
Speaker 1: dot Com investigative report. Did he go there alone? Didn't
16:02
Speaker 1: he have a partner? Carol Dark, Yes he did, Man Nancy,
16:05
Speaker 1: he did have a partner. And believe it or not,
16:07
Speaker 1: because the call went out without any kind of specification. Okay,
16:11
Speaker 1: we've talked about how the call came in on a
16:13
Speaker 1: non emergency line. Fort Worth doesn't break that down and
16:16
Speaker 1: say this is a non emergency, go check on it.
16:18
Speaker 1: They send it out to the police out in uniform
16:21
Speaker 1: on patrol. They send it out just as a call.
16:24
Speaker 1: So not only did he have his partner, but they
16:26
Speaker 1: had backup arrived within a matter of minutes. I mean
16:29
Speaker 1: they had to have been on their way to this
16:30
Speaker 1: location before the shots were fired, because within three minutes
16:34
Speaker 1: of the shot ringing out, the place was swarming with police.
16:37
Speaker 1: Backup was already on the way, yes, ma'am, and they
16:39
Speaker 1: were there on site, I mean running. Joseph Smith, the
16:42
Speaker 1: guy that called in the non emergency call, he said
16:45
Speaker 1: that he hears the shot and he sees I mean
16:48
Speaker 1: armed officers running all over the place, and he said
16:50
Speaker 1: he'd never knew what happened. You know, he was very concerned.
16:53
Speaker 1: As you mentioned earlier, this guy is deeply affected. You know,
16:56
Speaker 1: this woman was in her own home with her nephew
16:58
Speaker 1: playing a video game. No, we couldn't hear it, you know,
17:01
Speaker 1: on the audio tape that we heard from the police camera,
17:03
Speaker 1: we couldn't hear anything coming from inside the house, no yelling, screaming,
17:06
Speaker 1: no gunfire. We only heard the cops say hands up
17:09
Speaker 1: up or show me your hands and firing immediately. You
17:12
Speaker 1: know what. I didn't hear anything like that on the
17:13
Speaker 1: bodycam video as well. Do we know if the partner,
17:17
Speaker 1: Carol Darch is going to be charged. No, at this point.
17:20
Speaker 1: She's not being charged, and she was merely there, you know,
17:23
Speaker 1: as as his partner and was following him. He was
17:27
Speaker 1: the lead guy. You know, we see his camera. We
17:29
Speaker 1: don't see anybody camera from her yet, We're only seeing
17:31
Speaker 1: it from him, so we don't actually know where she was.
17:34
Speaker 1: All we have is Aaron Dean and his point of
17:37
Speaker 1: view going up and shooting. Well, and we did hear
17:40
Speaker 1: his partner at some point say something, but it was innocuous.
17:43
Speaker 1: What about it? Straight out to James Shelnutt twenty seven
17:46
Speaker 1: years Metro Major Case detective SWAT officer, now lawyer. What
17:50
Speaker 1: about the partner? Now, I don't think the partner's going
17:52
Speaker 1: to be charged. I think I think that the partner
17:54
Speaker 1: probably was complicit to the extent of handling the call poorly.
17:59
Speaker 1: Obviously that's the case. You know, I don't know the
18:01
Speaker 1: level of experience or the rank of the partner, if
18:03
Speaker 1: the partner was in a supervisory role or not. You know,
18:06
Speaker 1: this situation. I think they're alluded to it earlier. This
18:09
Speaker 1: situation went wrong from the very beginning. You know, the
18:12
Speaker 1: appropriate way to handle this when you pull up on
18:15
Speaker 1: the call is to knock on the front door and
18:17
Speaker 1: stand to the side, knock on the front door. At already,
18:20
Speaker 1: this is not a call where there's an active crime
18:22
Speaker 1: in progress, and it's one where you have to consider
18:24
Speaker 1: alternate scenarios. And when I look at this as someone
18:28
Speaker 1: who has served as an instructor, of served as a
18:30
Speaker 1: field training officer of trained new police officers much like
18:33
Speaker 1: this guy how to work on the road, you know
18:35
Speaker 1: something you have to look at when you approach these
18:37
Speaker 1: calls as alternate scenarios. You know, alternate scenario could be that, hey,
18:40
Speaker 1: there could be a back out there. The alternate scenario
18:43
Speaker 1: is that everything could be okay. It could be that
18:45
Speaker 1: while you're walking around in the backyard, are you going
18:48
Speaker 1: to scare the homeowner? Is a homeowner going to think
18:50
Speaker 1: that there's a prilor in the backyard that you're the
18:52
Speaker 1: bad guy? You know, are the what are the risk
18:54
Speaker 1: that you create by your presence by not properly identifying
18:58
Speaker 1: yourself as a police officer. And I just think that
19:00
Speaker 1: when you go back and look at this from the
19:02
Speaker 1: very beginning, this call went to Rye right when the
19:05
Speaker 1: officers pulled up, and this is something that's completely preventable.
19:09
Speaker 1: You know, if I'm a chief at Fort Worth Police Department.
19:12
Speaker 1: I'm going back and I'm taking a hard look at
19:14
Speaker 1: my training for these officers, and I think that when
19:17
Speaker 1: I look at this, this is what it boils down to.
19:18
Speaker 1: This is the first thing is that this officer did
19:21
Speaker 1: not have the appropriate training or there was a gap.
19:24
Speaker 1: You know, you see a de escalation taught to police
19:26
Speaker 1: officers where they try to de escalate the situation so
19:28
Speaker 1: that you don't have to use deadly force or other force.
19:31
Speaker 1: You know, you see officers trained tactically what you know
19:33
Speaker 1: what to do if you encounter a threat to your
19:36
Speaker 1: safety or the safety of another. But there's a lot
19:39
Speaker 1: less alternate scenario training where you train the officers to think, Okay,
19:44
Speaker 1: this could be a but it also could be fe
19:46
Speaker 1: and I need to handle myself accordingly so that I'm
19:49
Speaker 1: prepared in the event there is a threat, But don't
19:51
Speaker 1: make a threat out of something, whether it's not point crime.
20:02
Speaker 1: Stories with Nancy Grace, the citizens and the residents of
20:14
Speaker 1: our city, we understand your frustration. I too frustrated and
20:20
Speaker 1: disappointed by what has occurred in the officer's actions. We
20:24
Speaker 1: never won an officer's response to a call to end
20:27
Speaker 1: in the loss of life. We have a great many
20:31
Speaker 1: officers who work extremely hard every day. They do this
20:35
Speaker 1: a great sacrifice and with a serpent's heart ask you
20:40
Speaker 1: please do not but the actions of one officer reflect
20:46
Speaker 1: on the other. Seventeen hundred. There's absolutely no excuse for
20:51
Speaker 1: this accident, and the person responsible will be held accountable.
20:56
Speaker 1: Miss Jefferson's family in our community will have the last word.
21:00
Speaker 1: The chords will speed on her the head. I'm trying
21:04
Speaker 1: to figure out whether the other officer is going to
21:07
Speaker 1: be charged. We know that Officer Carol Darch has been
21:10
Speaker 1: on the four since twenty seventeen. They were not in
21:13
Speaker 1: the car together, as you would imagine partners. She arrived
21:17
Speaker 1: at two twenty eight am. He Officer Arandane arrived at
21:22
Speaker 1: two twenty nine am. What does that mean, Dave Matt,
21:27
Speaker 1: What do you know about potential charges? I also am
21:30
Speaker 1: understanding that he Arandane is not cooperating with cops. She
21:36
Speaker 1: Carol Darch is yeah, You're absolutely right, Nancy. From the
21:39
Speaker 1: get go, Officer Dean he had he wouldn't talk to
21:44
Speaker 1: he would not talk to his bosses, he would not
21:45
Speaker 1: talk to anybody without a legal representative from the union.
21:49
Speaker 1: He then resigned as the interim chief of police was
21:52
Speaker 1: gone his way to fire him. We know that his partner, Carol,
21:56
Speaker 1: actually is talking with police. We know that she arrived
21:59
Speaker 1: a minute before and then waiting for him to show up.
22:02
Speaker 1: When they get there, he then takes the lead. I
22:04
Speaker 1: don't know why. I don't know the procedure or anything else,
22:07
Speaker 1: but they arrive and he immediately takes the lead position
22:10
Speaker 1: and decides where they're going to go. She is following
22:13
Speaker 1: behind him and following his lead. That's why she's cooperating
22:17
Speaker 1: and he is not interesting. Do you see any scenario,
22:20
Speaker 1: Daryl Cohen under which she Carol Darge would be also charged.
22:24
Speaker 1: I really do not, Nancy. She's talking, she's cooperating, and
22:28
Speaker 1: she is using my philosophy, if you have nothing to hide,
22:32
Speaker 1: then hide nothing. He on the other hand, is keeping
22:35
Speaker 1: his mouth shut because he knows there's a lot that
22:39
Speaker 1: he did wrong, and mostly he killed someone with no
22:42
Speaker 1: reason and no cost. The reality is that, according to
22:46
Speaker 1: ballistics and what we see on the body Kim footage
22:49
Speaker 1: I talk to Janna Jefferson, was shot through her bedroom window.
22:54
Speaker 1: She was inside, he was on the outside shooting through
22:58
Speaker 1: the window. That doesn't sound soop to Michell, No, it's not.
23:03
Speaker 1: The whole thing is outside of ANSP. If it is
23:06
Speaker 1: within the SOP, they need to rewrite it because they've
23:09
Speaker 1: got one to s getting people killed. What we also
23:12
Speaker 1: know is that Autasiana Jefferson's mother was in the hospital
23:18
Speaker 1: and that she was taking home to care for the mom.
23:21
Speaker 1: The family shared that Smith was worried because he thought
23:27
Speaker 1: the mom had gotten back from the hospital and was
23:32
Speaker 1: worried there may be medical problems. Again, we're trying to
23:37
Speaker 1: take in everything that has happened. A well's fair check
23:41
Speaker 1: gone awry, Dave Matt what can you tell me about
23:44
Speaker 1: a weapon in the home? Sadly, Nancy. As often happens,
23:49
Speaker 1: the police released a photo of a gun, well, a
23:52
Speaker 1: blurry photo, two different shots of a gun inside the home.
23:57
Speaker 1: They regretted it immediately because it somehow was casting aspersions
24:01
Speaker 1: on the character of a woman who was murdered inside
24:04
Speaker 1: her own home by police, and they immediately took it down.
24:07
Speaker 1: But yes, there was a photo. There were two blurry
24:10
Speaker 1: photos of what appeared to be a gun inside the
24:13
Speaker 1: room where I Tatiana was killed. To Daryl Cohen, the
24:18
Speaker 1: gun in the home was legally allowed and what that means,
24:24
Speaker 1: I'm assuming is that they had a license for the
24:27
Speaker 1: gun to be in the home. I'm not understanding, Dave
24:30
Speaker 1: mac Is this her a Tassiana's home or is it
24:33
Speaker 1: her mother's home. It's a Tatiana's home. It's where she lives.
24:36
Speaker 1: And by the way, she was licensed, the gun was
24:39
Speaker 1: registered to her, and she was licensed to have that gun.
24:42
Speaker 1: There was the gun, it was in the bedroom where
24:44
Speaker 1: she was shot. I don't think that's gonna have anything
24:46
Speaker 1: to do it unless she was waiving it, appointing it
24:48
Speaker 1: directly at former cop Erindane Darryl Cohen. Absolutely, Nancy, and
24:54
Speaker 1: she doesn't necessarily even need to have a license. This
24:58
Speaker 1: is Texas, this is the United States. You have a
25:00
Speaker 1: right to have a weapon in your own home. You
25:03
Speaker 1: have a right to have a weapon so you can
25:05
Speaker 1: defend yourself if necessary. And unless, as you point out,
25:10
Speaker 1: there's some evidence on body cam, whether it's from the
25:15
Speaker 1: body cam of the police officer who's now no longer
25:18
Speaker 1: one or his partner, that she was waiving it, then
25:22
Speaker 1: there is absolutely, in my view, no defense. There may
25:26
Speaker 1: be begging, there may be some sort of a plea
25:28
Speaker 1: deal worked out, but there's no defense for this officer's
25:33
Speaker 1: former officers conduct. There just isn't. I can't find no
25:37
Speaker 1: justification at all for doing what he did. It's cold
25:41
Speaker 1: blood and burner time stories with Nancy Grace. We are
25:58
Speaker 1: talking about a then Fort Worth police officer gunning down
26:06
Speaker 1: a twenty eight year old woman in her own home.
26:11
Speaker 1: Right now, obvious comparisons are being made to the death
26:15
Speaker 1: of Botham John gunned down by cop Amber Geiger. Listen,
26:21
Speaker 1: and the thing with this, you can't say she had
26:23
Speaker 1: a gun in her hand. It don't matter she did,
26:25
Speaker 1: because in all actuality, if the council doctrine could have stood,
26:29
Speaker 1: she had the right to protect herself. For she's in
26:31
Speaker 1: our own house. And if you are outside of my house,
26:33
Speaker 1: walking outside of my window and there hears a gun
26:36
Speaker 1: in my house, as a president has property in the
26:39
Speaker 1: right of property on them, I have a right to
26:40
Speaker 1: protect myself. So I want to find out how you
26:43
Speaker 1: gonna twist this one, how you gonna turn this one
26:46
Speaker 1: to try and make it seem as though it's justified
26:48
Speaker 1: for you killing this lady in the house. And the
26:50
Speaker 1: next thing I would like to say, the Chief Crouse,
26:52
Speaker 1: Betsy Price, and all the city officials, we're not asking
26:54
Speaker 1: for a suspension, and don't speaking. I'm saying as a
26:56
Speaker 1: commite we're not asking for a suspension, we're asking for termination.
27:00
Speaker 1: We're not gonna allow you to tell us he got
27:01
Speaker 1: suspended for thirty days and we applaud to and say
27:04
Speaker 1: job well done. This presson, whoever it is, male or female,
27:08
Speaker 1: does not need to be on the streets. Because if
27:09
Speaker 1: that was me and I killed somebody that was in
27:11
Speaker 1: their own house, me noring from dinner with the system,
27:14
Speaker 1: y'all gonna put me in prison and put me in
27:16
Speaker 1: up for a long time. So we cannot allow this
27:18
Speaker 1: woman to do this or this man to do this,
27:20
Speaker 1: keep their job and then not labor them. Is what
27:22
Speaker 1: they are, and that is a murderer. That's right right there.
27:25
Speaker 1: You are hearing local pastor Rodney McIntosh speaking comparing this
27:31
Speaker 1: to the Ambergeiger shooting of a man and his own
27:34
Speaker 1: appearance in his own apartment Botham John. The comparisons are obvious.
27:41
Speaker 1: In both cases, a police officer shoot someone from outside
27:46
Speaker 1: their apartment into their apartment, killing them. In both cases,
27:51
Speaker 1: the victim is unarmed. In both cases, the shooter is
27:55
Speaker 1: a police officer. In both cases, the victim is just
28:00
Speaker 1: going about their business. Jill Acson in their own home today,
28:05
Speaker 1: Matt Crime Online dot Com investigative reporter. What other comparisons
28:09
Speaker 1: do you see, Nancy. It's kind of a stretch really
28:12
Speaker 1: when you get down to it, because Amber Geiger had
28:14
Speaker 1: just gotten off work and claimed she thought she was
28:17
Speaker 1: in her apartment when she sees what she perceives as
28:20
Speaker 1: an intruder. In this case, you've got officers going to
28:23
Speaker 1: do a welfare check and a woman inside her own
28:27
Speaker 1: home where the officers clearly know this is her home.
28:31
Speaker 1: They don't know who's in there, but they're just there
28:33
Speaker 1: to see why is the front door open at two
28:35
Speaker 1: thirty in the morning. The lights are on inside the house.
28:38
Speaker 1: All they had to do was say, hey, police here
28:40
Speaker 1: checking things out, what's going on? Anything would have prevented
28:44
Speaker 1: this from happening, you know, Dave Matt in the photos
28:46
Speaker 1: of the gun that was lawfully by a Tassiana Jefferson.
28:51
Speaker 1: In the photos, where was the gun found? You know
28:54
Speaker 1: it was it appeared to be through that window because
28:56
Speaker 1: we only got that shot, the blurry shot from the
29:00
Speaker 1: point of view camera from the police officer, and it
29:02
Speaker 1: looked to be near a dresser, But when you're saying
29:04
Speaker 1: it was near a dress or was anybody holding it, Yeah,
29:07
Speaker 1: it was just sitting out and it wasn't take it,
29:09
Speaker 1: didn't have the gun in her hand, Nancy. The full
29:12
Speaker 1: raw footage has been released by police and you can
29:16
Speaker 1: see it at crime online dot com. Now it has
29:19
Speaker 1: been edited and stops after the shooting occurs, but it
29:22
Speaker 1: does show glory images of a gun in Jefferson's home.
29:27
Speaker 1: Do you believe in any way, Daryl Cohen, that the
29:32
Speaker 1: gun can be used as a defense for the officer.
29:37
Speaker 1: There is no way in my view that he had
29:40
Speaker 1: ity right, not by any circumstance and idol of to
29:45
Speaker 1: fire without even identifying himself as a police officer, without
29:50
Speaker 1: even giving her an opportunity to show him her hands. Unbelievable, Nancy.
29:56
Speaker 1: I'm looking at the body cam footage right now, and
29:59
Speaker 1: you can. Until the officer is approaching from the back area.
30:03
Speaker 1: The lights are on in the home. He looks like
30:07
Speaker 1: he's looking in a fully transparent screen door like the
30:12
Speaker 1: doors made completely a glass. He's walking past a white vehicle.
30:18
Speaker 1: He's now walking around the home. Now is getting dark.
30:23
Speaker 1: It's dark. It was very well lit by the door.
30:26
Speaker 1: I was describing where the car is parked. Now he
30:29
Speaker 1: is using a flashlight and he is looking around. He's
30:35
Speaker 1: looking at the doors, he's looking at the walls. He's
30:38
Speaker 1: shining his flashlight all around the curtilage or the outside
30:42
Speaker 1: of the home. It looks like maybe a car poort
30:45
Speaker 1: or maybe a toolshed of some sort. It's an opaque
30:49
Speaker 1: gate made of wood. Can't see through it. He opens it.
30:53
Speaker 1: He's now going into what looks to be the backyard.
30:57
Speaker 1: He's gone through a gate. He's looking all around the home.
31:01
Speaker 1: Remember it's the front door that's open. Now he is
31:04
Speaker 1: looking at a paned glass and now I'm seeing the gun.
31:11
Speaker 1: The gun is lying on either the floor. It's inside
31:17
Speaker 1: a bedroom and it looks like it's lying on the floor,
31:21
Speaker 1: just lying there. To doctor Catherine Maloney joining me out
31:25
Speaker 1: of Nickel City Forensics, Deputy Chief Medical Examiner at Erie
31:29
Speaker 1: County Medical, what could the trajectory path of the bullet
31:34
Speaker 1: show us? Doctor Maloney, Well, that will give us information
31:39
Speaker 1: about how she was facing relative to him when he
31:44
Speaker 1: fired the gun. So if she was facing him, or
31:46
Speaker 1: if she had her back turned to him or her side,
31:49
Speaker 1: so we can get a sense of what she may
31:51
Speaker 1: have perceived. If anything, I'm curious about this gun. To you,
31:58
Speaker 1: James Shelnot, You've been in this position four being a
32:01
Speaker 1: Metro major case detective and a SWAT officer before he
32:04
Speaker 1: became a lawyer. You've gone into active crime scenes, active
32:11
Speaker 1: crime scenes where perps had weapons. In this case, what
32:16
Speaker 1: do you make of the fact that the gun apparently
32:20
Speaker 1: was lying down on the floor. Well, you know, when
32:25
Speaker 1: I'm not so sure that she wasn't holding the gun.
32:28
Speaker 1: There's no indication that she was, But I can't tell
32:30
Speaker 1: from the video that she wasn't. You know, I've watched
32:32
Speaker 1: that video last night. Now I'm not so sure of that. Maybe,
32:36
Speaker 1: you know, an enhanced version will come out, But you know,
32:40
Speaker 1: if the gun was in close proximity to where she
32:42
Speaker 1: was at most people don't keep their guns stored lying
32:45
Speaker 1: in the floor, and it did appear to me that
32:49
Speaker 1: the gun was in a flour and out a dresser.
32:50
Speaker 1: I could be wrong about that as the information comes out,
32:53
Speaker 1: but if it was lying in the floor close to
32:55
Speaker 1: where her body fell, that may be an indicator that
32:58
Speaker 1: she was holding the gun. Granted, I don't think that
33:01
Speaker 1: this shooting was justified. I think the same result that
33:04
Speaker 1: happened in ampler Geiger's case with a conviction, very very
33:08
Speaker 1: well happened in this case with a conviction it was wrong. Well,
33:10
Speaker 1: I gotta chance something, James. I was surprised too, But
33:13
Speaker 1: when I'm looking at it, it it looks like it's on
33:15
Speaker 1: the floor. If it's on the floor, did she drop it? Now?
33:20
Speaker 1: On that body cam video? Can you make out her image?
33:24
Speaker 1: James shell Nutt. You know, it looked like a shadow
33:28
Speaker 1: to me, And that goes back to what we were
33:29
Speaker 1: talking about a minut ago, Nancy. With it being POV
33:32
Speaker 1: point of view is great and the cameras have really
33:35
Speaker 1: helped identify what an officer sees or goes through and
33:38
Speaker 1: justification not justification, But they don't see the same thing
33:42
Speaker 1: as a human eye, if they don't focus the same
33:44
Speaker 1: way as a human eye. And to me, it's just
33:47
Speaker 1: hard to tell exactly what this poor lady was doing
33:51
Speaker 1: in this video before she was shot. Dave Matt what's
33:53
Speaker 1: it all about, Nancy? The reality of the gun is this.
33:57
Speaker 1: When the story first broke, there were two very blurry
34:00
Speaker 1: photos that were released to the press that appeared to
34:03
Speaker 1: show a gun inside the home. Now, most of us
34:06
Speaker 1: were immediately stunned by this, saying, what does that matter?
34:10
Speaker 1: You know a gun inside her home. Well, now we
34:13
Speaker 1: know an affidavit was unsealed earlier, and a detective a
34:17
Speaker 1: Rimshots is now shedding a little bit of light on
34:20
Speaker 1: the circumstances surrounding the shooting death of twenty eight year
34:23
Speaker 1: old Tatiana Jefferson. Now, she was babysitting her eight year
34:28
Speaker 1: old nephew and his child. His name's not being released because,
34:31
Speaker 1: after all, he's eight years old. But according to the
34:34
Speaker 1: documents that were released, he told a forensic investigator that
34:38
Speaker 1: they were playing call of duty about two o'clock in
34:41
Speaker 1: the morning when a Tatiana heard a commotion outside her home.
34:47
Speaker 1: The eight year old said that she retrieved a handgun,
34:50
Speaker 1: which she legally owned, from her purse. She then raised
34:55
Speaker 1: the gun, pointing it toward the window, and that's when
34:58
Speaker 1: she was shot dead through the window by officer Aaron Dean.
35:03
Speaker 1: Take a listen to our friends at WFAA. Fort Worth.
35:06
Speaker 1: Officials released this image of a gun inside the home
35:09
Speaker 1: where Tatiana Jefferson lived, but they didn't explain how it
35:12
Speaker 1: was relevant. Now, many of you wondered was Tatiana holding
35:16
Speaker 1: this gun when she was shot or earlier today. We
35:18
Speaker 1: got our hands on the arrest warrant that you see here,
35:21
Speaker 1: and on page three, it says Jefferson's eight year old
35:23
Speaker 1: nephew told police quote, she heard noises coming from outside,
35:27
Speaker 1: so she took her handgun from her purse, raised her
35:30
Speaker 1: handgun and pointed it toward the window. The arrest warrant
35:33
Speaker 1: says in different places that fourth police officer, Aaron Dean,
35:37
Speaker 1: didn't announce he was a police officer as he walked
35:39
Speaker 1: around the house, and we still don't know if he
35:43
Speaker 1: saw the gun before he fired. Now, Jefferson's family says
35:46
Speaker 1: she lawfully owned the gun, and here in Texas, the
35:48
Speaker 1: law says that means she can use force, some kisses
35:51
Speaker 1: deadly force to protect her property. The Fort Worth interim
35:54
Speaker 1: police chief agreed, we're homeowners in the state of Texas.
35:58
Speaker 1: I can't imagine most of us if we thought we
36:02
Speaker 1: had somebody outside our house they shouldn't be and we
36:04
Speaker 1: had access to firearm, that we wouldn't act very similarly
36:07
Speaker 1: to how she acted, as it stays right now. The
36:10
Speaker 1: Fort Worth police officer, former officer who fatally shot a Tassiana.
36:14
Speaker 1: Jefferson is now charged with murderer. Listen concerning the status
36:20
Speaker 1: of the criminal investigation. Approximately six pm yesterday, Aarondane was
36:26
Speaker 1: arrested for the murder of miss Jefferson. We obtainted a
36:29
Speaker 1: rest wing after no evidence and facts were analyzed and verified.
36:33
Speaker 1: A team of officers quickly. In fact, it has arrested
36:36
Speaker 1: the office of his attorney. He is booked into the
36:40
Speaker 1: Tarrent County Jail, where his bond was set by the
36:42
Speaker 1: presiding magistrate. He has since posted bond. We're continuing to
36:48
Speaker 1: work closely with the Arrent County Criminal District Attorney's office
36:51
Speaker 1: to ensure this entire investigation is prosecuted in a thorough,
36:56
Speaker 1: meticulous and solid manner. There was the unreleased into the
37:00
Speaker 1: gun release. Do we know anything about the gun or
37:03
Speaker 1: the officer would felt granted by the gun? Gun? The
37:05
Speaker 1: long to mister Jefferson. I cannot tell you what he felt.
37:10
Speaker 1: He did not give a statement to our investigators. Um
37:17
Speaker 1: the gun was found just inside of the room. But
37:20
Speaker 1: it makes sense that she would have a gun and
37:22
Speaker 1: she felt that she was being a rightener. There was
37:25
Speaker 1: someone in the backyard. We wait as justice unfolds Nancy
37:30
Speaker 1: Grace Crime's story, signing off goodbye friend,