Dallas officer faces manslaughter charge in apartment shooting

By Bernie Woodall

 

 

(Reuters) - A Dallas police officer will be charged with manslaughter after mistakenly entering an apartment she thought was hers and fatally shooting the man who lived there, authorities said on Friday.

 

The officer had completed a shift late on Thursday and was still in uniform when she returned to what she believed was her home and encountered 26-year-old Botham Shem Jean, Dallas police chief U. Renee Hall said at a news conference.

 

"It's not clear what (the) interaction was between her and the victim," Hall said. "But at some point, she fired her weapon, striking the victim. She called 911."

 

"Right now, there are more questions than we have answers," the chief said. "We understand the concern of this community."

 

The officer is white, while her victim was a black man whose family is from the Caribbean island of Saint Lucia, Hall said.

 

The St. Lucia Times reported that Jean was the son of a former permanent secretary for two governmental ministries of St. Lucia and he had been employed by PricewaterhouseCoopers and lived in a gated community. PricewaterhouseCoopers spokeswoman Megan DiSciullo told Reuters that Jean had worked in the company's Dallas office for two years.

 

Citing a relative of Jean, the newspaper reported that the officer lived on another floor of the same complex.

 

Hall said the Texas Rangers would take over the investigation because of the "unique" nature of the incident. Hall said the officer would be publicly identified after she was officially charged.

 

The chief said blood was drawn from the officer to test for alcohol or drugs in her system.

 

She said emergency responders had arrived within four minutes of being called, and Jean was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.

 

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-09-09

"...The officer is white, while her victim was a black man whose family is from the Caribbean island of Saint Lucia, Hall said..."

 

I do not know the answer, but the question will be and should be asked;

 

Would this guy have been shot if he were white?

 

Perhaps I am being unfair, but I suspect that he wouldn't have been. It is unfortunate that I hold this view, but as someone who reads the news regularly, it is hard to avoid that thought. It is unfortunate that the question needs to be asked at all, but as someone who reads the news regularly, I definitely see that it does need to be asked.

 

The most unfortunate thing of all is that a young man was shot and killed for no reason at all; who knows what he might have done?

 

R.I.P.

 

I once went to a party in a housing estate where hundreds of houses looked exactly the same. I was pretty drunk, walked out to a local pub to get more booze and then walked into the wrong house on my return. Its the only reason I can think of for someone not knowing their own home. My wife, when I explained to her what had happened came up with the same answer. Was she drunk?

America  the land of the free, that is unless you are black, live in the same building as a gun toting black hating cop.

She claims to have thought she was going in her own apartment, bs.

When leaving for work she would have locked her door, yet on returning, she entered another apartment how?

Was the mans door locked? If it was how did she get in?

 

28 minutes ago, Lungstib said:

I once went to a party in a housing estate where hundreds of houses looked exactly the same. I was pretty drunk, walked out to a local pub to get more booze and then walked into the wrong house on my return. Its the only reason I can think of for someone not knowing their own home. My wife, when I explained to her what had happened came up with the same answer. Was she drunk?

I once lived in an apartment building and the elevator stopped on the wrong floor.   I paid no attention because I was alone and no one got in.   I went to my apartment, or where it should be, had I been on the right floor.   I walked in and there were a bunch of people in the apartment.   It took me a minute to figure out it was me in the wrong place.   Totally embarrassing.

 

I don't know if race was an issue.   There is a good chance she would have shot anyone she believed was an intruder.  

 

As always, don’t wait for details, just speculate. 

The police officer will take a week or more before concocting in collaboration with her union the most beneficial scenario to her.

It will go to trial.

The police officer will be found not guilty.

The black guy will remain dead and his family stricken with grief.

 

The American Tale. We have all read it before.

21 minutes ago, Credo said:

I once lived in an apartment building and the elevator stopped on the wrong floor.   I paid no attention because I was alone and no one got in.   I went to my apartment, or where it should be, had I been on the right floor.   I walked in and there were a bunch of people in the apartment.   It took me a minute to figure out it was me in the wrong place.   Totally embarrassing.

 

I don't know if race was an issue.   There is a good chance she would have shot anyone she believed was an intruder.  

 

I live in a hi-rise condo building and have done the same at least once every couple of years. Fortunately my key wouldn't work in the deadbolt.

 

So likely white Texas Rangers investigated this white cop's shooting of an unarmed black man and determined it to be manslaughter? Sure sounds like a cold stone murder. 

 

To me it's easy to understand how these things happen. That country is flooded with consealable hand guns. Everyone seems paranoid because there are so many itchie trigger fingers. This is especially the case for cops. Poverty breeds crime which leads to carrying guns. Blacks have a high poverty/criminality and gun violence rate. One sudden move people go blasting away. My city is usually the murder capital of my country. It has about 800k population but the last cop murdered on the job was in the 1970's. Doubtful any American city can say that. But we don't allow hand guns. Laws prohibiting hand guns don't mean much when anyone can go over a state line to purchase.

I think there is far more to this than we have heard, sounds and looks very fishy .

3 hours ago, colinneil said:

America  the land of the free, that is unless you are black, live in the same building as a gun toting black hating cop.

She claims to have thought she was going in her own apartment, bs.

When leaving for work she would have locked her door, yet on returning, she entered another apartment how?

Was the mans door locked? If it was how did she get in?

 

The fact is,that she had not opened the door!!She was in front of the door!  But it was not her apartment and her contactless smartcard did not work!  Black guy, hearing commotion outside had opened the door himself from inside.And she shoot him....

Bloody sad and silly,but this is the fact.  IMHO: it was Dallas and she acted automatically as a local redneck:

black?- shoot!

Nothing will happen to her... Well,may be something will happen,the victim is black,but he is foreigner, related to important politicians in his country,may be they will find some way to blame him?

What a horrible story - it would be comical if it wasn't tragic.

I hope they throw the book at this idiot "officer"

Edited September 9, 20187 yr by manarak

24 minutes ago, bert bloggs said:

I think there is far more to this than we have heard, sounds and looks very fishy .

I agree, even if she was completely high and drunk, i don't believe her story.

It's a sad state of affairs, when the ones who should protect the people are too often as dangerous as criminals.

This woman is a disgrace to the Dallas police department.

Second time she has done this, the first on the 1st of may 2017, why was she not fired from her job then?

3.5 years a cop and done this twice.

2 hours ago, Credo said:

I once lived in an apartment building and the elevator stopped on the wrong floor.   I paid no attention because I was alone and no one got in.   I went to my apartment, or where it should be, had I been on the right floor.   I walked in and there were a bunch of people in the apartment.   It took me a minute to figure out it was me in the wrong place.   Totally embarrassing.

 

I don't know if race was an issue.   There is a good chance she would have shot anyone she believed was an intruder.  

 

You didn't need a key for the lock?

How about the case at hand, any locks or is there more to this story?

45 minutes ago, stevenl said:

You didn't need a key for the lock?

How about the case at hand, any locks or is there more to this story?

I don't actually recall.   I had a roommate, so it wasn't unusual for the door to be open and it was.   There were about 6 or 7 Thais sitting on the floor eating!  The apartments were all very similar so it took me a moment to figure out it wasn't mine.

 

I think someone posted that she couldn't get in and he opened the door.   

 

Was she drug tested? Not knowing your own house. I find that hard to believe.

she saw a black man,like many US cops her first thought was shoot him.

Oh Dear, don't let an investigation by an independent police agency be heard before calling the officer a racist drunk. As a female police officer she was apparently "mind set" for an attack by a "black", a situation she sees daily in her work. I think it's safe to say that her career as a police officer is as dead as her victim. 

Wrong Apartment, Unlawful entry and then Shot lawful occupant. While this is a tragic series of errors Manslaughter is the least She should be charged with.

Any trained law enforcement officer should have shot to incapacitate . I would think tht as it was his Apartment. He may well have less than politely asked her to leave

Amerika. White cop. Black man. Guess who is dead? Not guilty. An accident. Case closed. NEXT.

I'm curious how the officer "walked in" to the wrong apartment, just seems weird. I guess Mr. Jean may have left the door ajar, but if it was closed and locked, one assumes Officer Guyger would have had a problem trying to enter and assuming she wasn't loaded, figured out she was at the wrong apartment?

 

Her previous incident of shooting a suspect last year, by all accounts (and I do know these can be under a blue cloud) sounded justified.

 

 

26 minutes ago, mtls2005 said:

I'm curious how the officer "walked in" to the wrong apartment, just seems weird. I guess Mr. Jean may have left the door ajar, but if it was closed and locked, one assumes Officer Guyger would have had a problem trying to enter and assuming she wasn't loaded, figured out she was at the wrong apartment?

 

Her previous incident of shooting a suspect last year, by all accounts (and I do know these can be under a blue cloud) sounded justified.

 

 

According to another poster, see previous page, she tried to enter with her key, was refused, but the person living there opened the door.

1 hour ago, stevenl said:

According to another poster, see previous page, she tried to enter with her key, was refused, but the person living there opened the door.

 

OK, thanks.

 

I did read a few of the local Dallas papers and didn't see that detail, must have missed it. Sucks to think someone is trying to get into your apartment, open the door to find out what's happening and get shot. The officer must not have had her 'throw-down piece' on her?

 

 

2 hours ago, Mansell said:

Amerika. White cop. Black man. Guess who is dead? Not guilty. An accident. Case closed. NEXT.

Her Union lawyer will have the PTSD angle well nailed down before this goes anywhere near a courthouse.

Faith in US police gone down a bit if they do not know which apartment they live in ! I mean I'm no detective but the number on the door might be  a good giveaway !

 

As for the white vs black thing, just the media stoking up the pathetic race hatred crimes thing again any time a white kills a black person. 

 

To be blunt ,you do not shoot an unarmed man who you are confronted by ,no matter what colour he is , she must be charged if this is the case .

8 minutes ago, bert bloggs said:

To be blunt ,you do not shoot an unarmed man who you are confronted by ,no matter what colour he is , she must be charged if this is the case .

 

Yeah you do, if you have a gun. ~ Twenty-three states have "stand your ground" laws, so what if it was someone else's "castle"? ("Castle Doctrine")

 

But, but she feared for her life as the dangerous-looking black man was brandishing a TV remote.

 

She may get sacked, end up as a sheriff or a school guard, and hopefully won't kill too many more folks.

 

 

18 hours ago, stevenl said:

According to another poster, see previous page, she tried to enter with her key, was refused, but the person living there opened the door.

According to the Dallas police chief, Amber Guyger entered the apartment.

She shot him twice, manslaughter no doubt about that.

She has been charged and bailed.

Poor training and temperament for the job.
A dumb slut with a gun. Innocent man is dead.
As she is a policewoman and the victim is not a white person she will be exonerated. Texas, sad.

23 hours ago, Ulic said:

Was she drug tested? Not knowing your own house. I find that hard to believe.

Did you even read the OP? It states quite clearly:

 

Quote

The chief said blood was drawn from the officer to test for alcohol or drugs in her system.