A grand jury in Dallas County charged former Dallas Police Department Officer Amber Guyger for shooting and killing Botham Jean, who lived in the same apartment building as Guyger. After wrapping up a shift on September 6, Guyger went home — to the wrong home — and killed Jean.
Guyger lived in Apartment 1378 of the South Side Flats complex close to Dallas Police headquarters, according to Guyger's arrest warrant affidavit, as cited by Dallas Observer. She killed Jean in Apartment 1478, directly above her own abode.
Upon arriving at the building, Guyger said she went to the wrong floor and walked to the apartment she thought was hers. When she went to open the door with her key, it was already slightly ajar, and she was able to enter. She walked in, and, thinking she was looking at an intruder, "gave [Jean] verbal commands," which he refused, Guyger said.
According to Guyger, after she shot Jean, she turned on the lights, realized she was in the wrong apartment, gave Jean CPR and called 911.
Jean, a 26-year-old man from the Caribbean island of St. Lucia, moved to Arkansas with his family when he was young, according to the family's attorney, Lee Merritt. He became an accountant and a naturalized US citizen after attending Harding University in Arkansas.
People who knew Jean described him "as a man who loved God and worshipped through singing," according to a report by the Washington Post. Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings commended Jean as a model citizen.
The Dallas police chief has said she doesn't know if race was a factor in the man's death.
Guyger was initially arrested on manslaughter charges three days after shooting Jean.
Merritt has disputed Guyger's account that the tragedy was caused by the police officer mistakenly entering Jean's apartment.
"There are witnesses who said that before the gunshots, they heard the officer knocking at the door and repeatedly saying, ‘Let me in,'" Merritt told the Washington Post.
The Dallas police fired Guyger on September 24.
