A Dallas police officer is currently charged with manslaughter for the murder of a man, whom she believed to have broken into her apartment.
Botham Shen Jean was at home in his Dallas apartment when officer Amber Guyger walked into the apartment mistakenly believing it to be hers. The officer had assumed that someone had broken into her apartment, and Guyger opened fire, hitting Jean twice. Jean got rushed to the hospital where he would later die.
A member of local law enforcement spoke to the Dallas Morning News about how Guyger had just gotten home from a 15-hour shift, and how she mistakenly parked in the wrong floor of her garage. She walked into the apartment, which she was able to do since the door was unlocked, and saw a large silhouette, according to the arrest warrant affidavit.
Guyger would fire two shots after her verbal commands would go ignored by Jean with one connecting to his torso. Afterwards she would then enter the apartment, dial 911 and start attending to Jean with first aid according to the affidavit. When asked for an address is when Guyger would realize she was not in her apartment.
There are conflicting reports on a few key points about Guyger’s story, one of which being about whether or not the door was unlocked. One of Jean’s neighbors report not hearing any knocking or yelling however two others reported hearing Guyger pleading for Jean to let her in. Another interesting conflict was where Jean was in the apartment when Guyger entered. The Dallas Police search warrant states that Jean was at the door when Guyger came in however the Texas Rangers affidavit reports Jean was across the apartment.
The Dallas Police have taken the electronic locks off of the doors to the respective apartments in the attempt to see if any information can be gleaned from them. The police have yet to release any information regarding the locks however.
It is currently up for debate among community members as to whether or not Guyger should be stripped of her badge.
“I personally think so because regardless of what she thought, 15 hours on the shift is not an excuse to shoot someone, regardless of how tired or out of sorts you are,” Lyndsey Guarino, a junior criminology major, said. “The degree of what she did wrong is a poor decision, but she definitely did something wrong so I believe she should have her badge taken away.”
Another thought of the community is that of an anonymous police officer who said, “I would think any opinion on the matter would be premature before knowing all the facts.”
Jean was a highly regarded member of the Dallas community, having come from Saint Lucia in the Caribbean where according to his mother; he worked with ‘at risk boys’, assisted and visited orphanages among others. Friends and family of Jean remember him “as someone who loved to help others and volunteered his time, as a man with a beautiful smile and a beautiful voice.”
Guyger was fired from her position as a police officer as of Sept. 24th, she is able to appeal this decision if she wishes under civil service rules. However with an impending trial it is unknown if this is something she’ll choose to do.
