Texas - Victim’s Family Doubts Dallas Police Statement On Apartment Shooting

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The family of the victim killed by a Dallas police officer after he mistook his apartment unit to be her own and assumed he was an intruder are questioning authorities why it took them three days to charge the said officer. They also have suspicions that there are efforts by the suspect’s department to “condone” what she did and “to give her a break.”

Police officer Amber Guyger’s case was charged with manslaughter, but the family of 26-year-old victim Botham Jean find it odd that it took that long to make the charge. They are also demanding answers why Guyger’s was so quick to employ deadly force in her “encounter” with Jean in his own apartment unit she wrongly thought was hers.

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The case will be presented to a grand jury, which could decide to go for more serious charges against Guyger than manslaughter.

An affidavit submitted to the court provided a fuller description of Guyger’s account of the incident. Jean’s family and lawyers are claiming that the narrative was “self-serving”, if not inaccurate.

Guyger told investigators that she just concluded a 15-hour shift on Thursday when the incident happened. She then went home to the South Side Flats apartment complex, still in her uniform. She then parked on the fourth floor, instead of the third level where she actually lives. The affidavit seems to suggest that the officer was tired, confused or disoriented at that time following a long shift at work, where she presumably did overtime work.

She said in her account, that the apartment door opened when she put her key in the apartment door. She went inside and the lights were off. She then saw a figure in the darkness and assumed her unit was being burglarized. Guyger claimed she gave verbal commands to the “figure.” She drew her gun after and fired twice.

Guyger also said she only realized she was in the wrong unit when she stepped out to make a 911 call. It was only when she was about to go inside did she realize it was not her unit, after all.

Lawyers for the Jean family claimed, however, that the affidavit contradicts neighbors’ accounts of what took place. One of the attorneys, Lee Merritt said two independent witnesses told him they “heard knocking on the door in the hallway before the shooting.”

Merritt also said one of the witnesses told him about hearing a woman’s voice saying, “Let me in! Let me in!” The witness said they next heard gunshots, after which they heard a man’s voice say, “Oh my God! Why did you do that?”

Guyger was arrested Sunday night and booked into jail in the neighboring Kaufman County. She was later released on bond.

Some are making the case to be another narrative of a white officer killing an innocent black person. Others think the victim’s color has nothing to do with what they think was just a case of unfortunate mistake that turned fatal. In any event, developments to the case would be interesting.

Source:

https://www.pennlive.com/nation-world/2018/09/dallas_officer_who_mistook_apa.html