Dallas cop fatally shoots neighbor in apartment she mistakes for her own

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A Dallas police officer returning home from work fatally shot a neighbor on Thursday after she mistook his apartment for her own, police said.

Dallas Police Chief U. Renee Hall on Friday revealed the department's intent to charge the officer with manslaughter based on available information.

"Right now, there are more questions than we have answers," Hall said during a news conference.

The officer had arrived at her apartment complex in uniform after working a shift, the Dallas Police Department said in an earlier news release. She called dispatch to report the shooting and told responding officers she believed the victim’s apartment was her own when she entered it.

It was not immediately clear how the officer got inside the apartment or what led to the shooting.

"I won't go into that information right now," Sgt. Warren Mitchell, a spokesman for the police department, said. "I mean, we have not interviewed her, and like I said this is just a preliminary statement. We still have a lot to do in this investigation. ... This is all we can give you at this time."

The victim was identified as Botham Shem Jean, 26, FOX 4 News reported. He was taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

The officer, who hasn't been named, will be placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation. She was not injured in the shooting. The police department and the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office will be conducting a joint investigation.

Harding University, a private university in Searcy, Arkansas, said Jean was a native of the Caribbean country St. Lucia and often led worship services at the school's campus. He graduated from the school in 2016. Since then, he's been working in risk assurance for accounting and consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers in Dallas, the school said.

Jean's mother, Allie, questioned how the deadly mix-up occurred.

"Somebody has to be crazy not to realize that they walked into the wrong apartment," Allie Jean told NBC News. "He's a bachelor. Things are different inside."

Allie said her son was a good student and was active in his church.

"We were very, very close," she said. "We would talk about everything, about politics. Botham loved everyone, and everyone loved him."

Residents were also shocked by the incident.

"[It's] super scary because the police are supposed to protect you and then they come home and, you know, you're just hanging out in your own house and then they come home thinking they're home or whatever. I don't know if she was tired but that's pretty scary," Richard Healy Nelson, who lives in the complex where the shooting occurred, told FOX 4 News.

"It's terrible. I hope it's just a tragic accident and nothing more than that," Tomiya Melvin, who lives nearby, told Dallas News. "This area appealed to me because it always seemed so safe, and so far it has been. But I won't be leaving my door unlocked anymore, that's for sure."



Good Grief!!!!!!

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Chicago (AFP) - Protesters in Texas are demanding immediate jail for a Dallas police officer who entered the wrong apartment mistaking it for her own and shot dead the black man who lived there.

The officer, who police have yet to identify and has been placed on leave pending official charges, will face criminal charges for the fatal shooting, officials said Friday.

A racially-mixed crowd gathered near the crime scene for a candlelight vigil late Friday to honor the victim, identified as Botham Shem Jean, 26, an immigrant from the Caribbean island nation of Saint Lucia.

"We are here to express our outrage, and we are here to demand accountability," said Imam Omar Suleiman, an activist at the event organized by the Dallas-based Mothers Against Police Brutality group.

"If this was not an officer that pulled the trigger, this person would be in a jail cell tonight!" Suleiman said

Mourners carried signs with slogans that read "Have a trial when police kill" and "Where is justice when police kill us?"

Authorities are seeking to charge the officer with manslaughter. Dallas Police chief U. Renee Hall told a news conference that the shooting was "a very unique situation."

"We have ceased handling (the incident) under our normal officer-involved shooting protocol," the chief said, adding that the officer's blood was being tested for drugs and alcohol.

- 'Was in no wrong place' -

The shooting took place late Thursday at the end of the officer's work shift. While still in uniform, she told authorities she mistakenly walked into Jean's apartment in an upscale complex near downtown Dallas.

Police did not yet know what interaction occurred between Jean and the officer. After the officer shot Jean, she called emergency services and told responding officers that she had thought she had entered her own apartment.

"Right now there are more questions than answers," Chief Hall said.

Jean had graduated from a private Christian college in Arkansas in 2016 and had since been working at the accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers in Dallas.

"It just still feels like a nightmare," Jean's mother, Allison Jean, told NBC News. "I wish I would wake up and find that it wasn't true."

Allison Jean -- who according to the St. Lucia Times has served for years in the island's government -- said the details of her son's shooting make no sense.

Her son "was in no wrong place at any wrong time. He was in his sanctuary, in the place where he called home. He didn't deserve this," she told NBC.

Jean's sister, Allisa Charles-Findley, said she needs "answers for my baby brother."

"Just last week I was thinking of what to get you for your birthday," she wrote on Facebook, "now I have to go pick out your casket."

Neighbor Alyssa Kinsey told The Dallas Morning News that Jean helped her move new furniture into her apartment soon after she moved into the building with her family in April.

"I'll remember his smile," she said. "It just lit up a room."

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The Dallas police officer who apparently shot a man in error in his own apartment last week was involved in a previous officer-involved shooting, the department announced Saturday.

Amber Guyger, who was identified as the police officer who shot Botham Jean late Thursday, shot a suspect in May 2017 after a struggle in which police say the man reached for an officer's Taser.

Guyger was one of multiple officers who approached a wanted person on the morning of May 12, 2017, identified by police as Uvaldo Perez, which triggered a fight, and eventually the shooting. Guyger fired only one round, striking and wounding the suspect, according to a report on the Dallas Police Department's website. He was treated at an area hospital and survived.

The police department's database shows the grand jury returned a finding of "no bill," meaning no charges were filed.

Guyger has now been on the force for four years.

Dallas Police Chief Renee Hall said Guyger had left work on Thursday night and entered what "she believed to be her apartment," when she encountered Jean and fatally shot him. It is unclear if the two had any interaction before the shooting, police said.

On Friday, Hall said the department was in the process of filing an arrest warrant for manslaughter, but Guyger remains uncharged. The Texas Rangers have been brought in to further investigate the shooting.

"The Rangers had an opportunity to interview the officer," Hall said Saturday during a community event at Paul Quinn College, according to Dallas ABC affiliate WFAA. "Based on that, they asked us to hold off on the warrant until they had an opportunity to investigate some of the information that was provided from that interview."

Lee Merritt, attorney for Jean's family, lashed out at the decision to delay her arrest Saturday evening, calling it "deferential treatment" based on Guyger being a police officer.

"This family is frustrated," Merritt said during a press conference following a vigil for Jean. "This family is grieving that it has not happened yet. We believe the fact that that has not happened yet is a reflection on deferential treatment for law enforcement officers."

Jean's mother, Allison, spoke at the vigil for her son after arriving in the city from their native St. Lucia the same day. Dallas West Church was filled with hundreds of Jean's friends, family and coworkers.

"She took my life away, like my very own life," Allison said of the officer. "She has to face whatever the law says. The very Bible says to render to Caeser that which is Caeser so if Ceaser says to pay a penalty for a life, then she has to pay."

Guyger is currently on administrative leave while the department investigates the shooting.

Jean will be buried in St. Lucia on Thursday, according to WFAA.






How does this shit happen!?