Accidental breaking and entering and manslaughter

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Fredkrueger100

Dream Master
Supporting Member
Special Hen Supporter
Joined
Aug 16, 2012
Messages
7,867
Reaction score
6,168
Location
Shawnee, OK
This young man and I share the same alma mater. Apparently, just graduated recently and was by all accounts a stand-up man and leader. Hate to see this. Wasteful on all accounts.
My cousin graduated from Harding too. If this man was a member of the Church which it sounds like he was, I doubt very seriously he was doing something to warrant him being shot. From reports he was a good Christian man. This is a terrible tragedy.
 

Dave70968

Sharpshooter
Special Hen
Joined
Aug 17, 2010
Messages
6,676
Reaction score
4,619
Location
Norman
Update: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/09/1...lled-neighbor-sheds-light-on-controversy.html

The arrest affidavit obtained by Fox News of a white Dallas police officer who shot and killed a black neighbor in his own home — after confusing the floor she was on — shed new light on the case, which is headed to a grand jury that may deliver more serious charges than manslaughter.

David Armstrong of the Texas Rangers wrote in an arrest affidavit obtained by Fox News on Monday that Officer Amber Guyger allegedly shot Botham Jean after he ignored her “verbal commands.”

Guyger just had ended a 15-hour shift Thursday when she returned in uniform to the South Side Flats apartment complex. She parked on the fourth floor, instead of the third, where she lived, according to the affidavit filed for the officer’s arrest warrant, possibly suggesting that she was confused or disoriented.

When she put her key in the apartment door that was unlocked and slightly ajar, it opened. Inside, the lights were off. Then she saw a figure in the darkness, the affidavit said.

The officer concluded that her apartment was being burglarized and gave verbal commands to the figure, who allegedly ignored them. She then drew her weapon and fired twice, the affidavit said.

When she turned on the lights, she realized she was in the wrong unit, according to the affidavit, which appeared to be based almost entirely upon the officer’s account.

Mayor Mike Rawlings also said Monday that Guyger had parked on the wrong floor.

Guyger, 30, was arrested Sunday night and booked into jail in neighboring Kaufman County before being released on a $300,000 bond, as Fox News previously reported.

“The grand jury will be that entity that will make the final decision in terms of the charge or charges that will come out of this case,” Dallas County District Attorney Faith Johnson told reporters. “We prepare to present a thorough case to the grand jury of Dallas County, so that the right decision can be made in this case.”

The district attorney also will have the option of presenting more serious charges to the grand jury.

When asked why Guyger was allowed to surrender somewhere other than Dallas County’s jail, Johnson said the decision was made by the Texas Rangers, who also are investigating.

The Dallas County medical examiner’s office said Jean, who grew up on the island of St. Lucia, died of a gunshot wound to the chest. His death was ruled a homicide.

Jean’s mother said investigators had not given her family an account of what happened. Allison Jean told a news conference that she asked many questions, but was told there are no answers yet.

Lawyers for the victim’s family questioned why it took three days for Guyger to be charged and why she was so quick to use deadly force in her encounter with 26-year-old Jean.

a57.foxnews.com_images.foxnews.com_content_fox_news_us_2018_09b0679227ddc30629e38b10ec9b54881f.jpg

Dallas Police Officer Amber Guyger, right, is accused of manslaughter in the death of Botham Jean. (Harding University/Kaufman County Jail)

Jean’s family hired attorney Benjamin Crump, who is best known for representing the families of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown. Martin was the black 17-year-old who was shot fatally in 2012 by George Zimmerman, a Hispanic man who was his Orlando-area neighborhood’s watch captain. Brown, who was 18, was shot to death in 2014 by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri.

“Black people in America have been killed by police in some of the most unbelievable manners,” Crump said Monday at a news conference, citing “driving while black in our cars” and “walking while black in our neighborhoods.”

Now, he said, “we are being killed living while black when we are in our apartments.”

The family’s legal team also includes Lee Merritt, who has represented relatives of an unarmed black teenager who was shot in the back by a white police officer in June while fleeing a traffic stop near Pittsburgh.

Friends and family gathered Saturday at the Dallas West Church of Christ to remember Jean, who had worked for accounting firm PwC since graduating in 2016 from Harding University in Arkansas, where he often led campus religious services as a student.

Sgt. Mike Mata, president of Dallas’ largest police union, the Dallas Police Association, called Saturday for an “open, transparent and full investigation of the event,” the Dallas Morning News reported.

He described Jean as an “amazing individual” and said that “if the grand jury deems necessary, this officer should have to answer for her actions in a court of law in Dallas County.”

On the day after the shooting, Police Chief U. Renee Hall said her department was seeking manslaughter charges against Guyger, a four-year veteran of the police force. But Hall said Saturday that the Texas Rangers asked her department to hold off because they had learned new information and wanted to investigate further before a warrant was issued.

Guyger’s blood was drawn at the scene to be tested for alcohol and drugs, Hall said, but authorities have not released results.

Jean wasn’t the first person shot by Guyger. She shot a man named Uvaldo Perez on May 12, 2017, while on duty.

According to an affidavit filed against Perez, police were looking for a suspect when Guyger and another officer were called to assist a third officer. Perez got out of a car and became combative with Guyger and another officer. A struggle began, and Guyger fired her stun gun at Perez, who then wrested it away from her. She then drew her gun and fired, wounding Perez in the abdomen.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
 

ignerntbend

Sharpshooter
Special Hen
Joined
Mar 27, 2009
Messages
15,797
Reaction score
3,270
Location
Oklahoma
Maybe I owe Terry Miller an apology. I thought Big50 was being sarcastic but maybe he was just being psychic. She broke into his home and shot him when he "ignored her verbal commands." That's how she's defending herself, evidently. WTF is there to say about that?
 

C_Hallbert

Sharpshooter
Supporting Member
Special Hen Supporter
Joined
Oct 12, 2017
Messages
1,209
Reaction score
1,482
Location
Oklahoma
One thing everyone is forgetting is the tiredness of the officer. She just came off a full shift. Who knows what happened that day. She could have been mentally, emotionally and physically drained from work (hell I get like that and all I do is sling cable). I know when I come home from work I make mistakes that normally would have been obvious. And if she walked into the apartment and saw him first, she could have gotten tunnel vision. Seeing a strange man in what she thought was her apartment she would focus on him and ignore the surroundings. Granted, this is all hypothetical, but a plausible explanation.

Perhaps a plausible explanation that is in no way exculpatory.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom