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Dallas Officer Amber Guyger's trial for the murder of Botham Shem Jean begins (FOUND GUILTY)

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/cri...uygers-account-shot-across-room-officials-say

Evidence released in Botham Jean slaying prompts allegations of 'smear campaign'

Evidence from Botham Jean’s apartment supports Dallas police Officer Amber Guyger’s account that she shot Jean from across the room as she stood inside his apartment door, two law enforcement officials with direct knowledge of the case told The Dallas Morning News.

The evidence, at least so far, doesn’t conclusively show whether the door was unlocked or ajar.

“We just don’t know,” said one of the two law enforcement officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss the case publicly.

Jean's family has said they don't believe he would have left the door open.

Court records obtained Thursday show Dallas police also found, among other things, two spent cartridge casings and 10.4 grams of marijuana in the apartment. The law enforcement officials said the marijuana was on the kitchen counter.

On Friday, the Jean family, its attorneys and supporters held a news conference to respond to the latest developments, labeling the release of the latest details as a "smear campaign" against the 26-year-old Jean.

They also demanded Guyger's firing and for Dallas police to open an investigation into who released information to "assassinate" Jean's character.

"It is time that we recognize that lives matter," Jean's mother, Allison Jean, said. "My son's life matters."
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https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/14/us/botham-jean-dallas-shooting-amber-guyger.html

A Dallas Police Officer Shot Her Neighbor, and a City Is Full of Questions


DALLAS — Botham Shem Jean analyzed risk for a living at a global auditing firm. For someone in his line of work, the evening was shaping up to be as risk-free as it gets: Alone, in his one-bedroom apartment one block from the Dallas Police Department headquarters.

Fresh from work, he had texted his sister his evening plans: Watching a football game on TV, the Eagles versus the Falcons. He texted a friend, apologizing for not going out with her the weekend before. Mr. Jean, 26, was from the island-nation of St. Lucia. He had a big smile, and was a big eater, winning a meat-lovers’ contest at Big Chef Steak House back in the Caribbean. He still had his ticket for a free meal on his next visit, his prize after eating a two-pound steak in one sitting.

Unit 1478 on the fourth floor of the South Side Flats apartment complex was an 800-square-foot bachelor pad: dishes piled up in the sink, with pancake syrup, dish soap and other belongings adding to the clutter on the kitchen island. It was the evening of September 6. His 27th birthday was three weeks away.

In a matter of hours, Mr. Jean would be dead. A white off-duty police officer who lived in Unit 1378 — directly below Mr. Jean — claimed that she mistakenly entered the wrong apartment after returning home from her 14-hour shift and believed Mr. Jean, who is black, was an intruder. Officer Amber R. Guyger, 30, fired her service weapon twice, striking him once in the torso.

He was later pronounced dead at a hospital, his death now the center of a mystery that has angered and puzzled Dallas and beyond.

The racial profiling of black men and women by white police officers put new phrases into the American vocabulary — driving while black, walking while black, shopping while black. The shooting of Mr. Jean seemed to demand its own, even more disturbing version: being at home while black.

The fatal shooting has become the latest, and most bizarre, confrontation between an unarmed black man and a white officer, angering many who say they simply do not believe the officer’s account. In a city with a decades-old history of racial divisions, the case has again heightened tensions. Protesters chanted and disrupted a City Council meeting on Wednesday, and threats against the police have poured in. Officers have said they believe Officer Guyger’s version of events, while many in the black community — and many white residents as well — do not. City officials and other leaders have been caught in the middle.

“This is the worst sort of situation, because we all expect to be safe in our own homes,” Michael S. Rawlings, the mayor of Dallas, said in an interview. “Everybody is heartbroken. Everybody wants the same thing — let’s get the answers. This is what the mother said to me. I was sitting there talking to her Saturday morning. And she said, ‘I’m not angry, but I just want to know why this lady shot my son.’”

Officer Guyger has been charged with manslaughter and released on a $300,000 bond, and numerous questions remain unanswered as the investigation continues. Mr. Jean’s relatives and his lawyers said Mr. Jean and the officer did not know each other. It’s not known whether there might have been a dispute between them as neighbors. Indeed much about what happened that night at the door of Mr. Jean’s apartment remains either unclear or in dispute.

The officer told investigators the door was slightly ajar and then fully opened when she inserted her computerized chip key; lawyers for Mr. Jean’s family said the door was closed. Officer Guyger said in court documents that when she opened the door, the apartment was dark and she saw a silhouette of someone she thought was a burglar. She said she shouted commands that were ignored. Neighbors, however, have told lawyers for Mr. Jean’s relatives that they heard someone banging on the door and shouting, “Let me in!” and “Open up!” before gunshots rang out. They said they then heard a man, presumably Mr. Jean, say, “Oh my God, why did you do that?”

Accounts of banging and shouting are puzzling, because Officer Guyger is single and lived alone, and it was unknown why she would have banged on the door if she believed she was at her own apartment.

In some ways, the drama unfolding in Dallas looks and feels similar to other high-profile police shootings of unarmed black men that have gripped the country in succession in recent years. Mr. Jean’s family is represented by Benjamin Crump, the lawyer who represented the relatives of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown, as well as S. Lee Merritt, a lawyer for the family of Jordan Edwards, the 15-year-old freshman shot and killed by a white officer last year in a Dallas suburb. In an echo of past police killings, there has been anger over what seem to be attempts to incriminate the victim: Police released a search warrant that revealed that 10.4 grams of marijuana in multiple baggies had been found in Mr. Jean’s apartment.

“First they assassinate his person, then they assassinate his character,” Mr. Crump said.

Hours earlier that evening, managers at the apartment complex had received complaints from residents that there was a strong smell of marijuana in the fourth-floor hallways. Managers knocked on Mr. Jean’s door and at least five other doors inquiring about the smell, the Jean family lawyers said. It was unclear who on the floor was responsible for the odor.

It was not known whether Officer Guyger’s apartment was searched.

Mr. Jean’s relatives, lawyers and supporters all say it would have been difficult for the officer to have mistaken Mr. Jean’s door: It had a large, bright-red, semicircular doormat, lying on a bare concrete floor. Officer Guyger had none. Would she not have noticed?

“My main concern is that she is lying,” said Mr. Merritt, one of the Jean family lawyers.

But Officer Guyger’s supporters say she had her hands full at the time she arrived at Mr. Jean’s door: Officials said she had with her a police vest, duty bag and lunchbox — items she might be expected to carry to her own front door, not someone else’s.

While relations between the police and black residents are strained, the case is playing out in one of the most diverse law enforcement settings in the country.

Dallas appears to be the only major city and county in the country where the police chief, the sheriff and the district attorney are all black women: Chief U. Reneé Hall, Sheriff Marian Brown and District Attorney Faith Johnson. Chief Hall was applauded by many for turning the investigation over to the Texas Rangers to ensure an independent inquiry, and both Chief Hall and Ms. Johnson attended the funeral of Mr. Jean on Thursday, as did several other officials.

But the diversity in the ranks of law enforcement has not quelled the anger over the shooting and over the police department’s handling of it.

Black activists, religious leaders and elected officials have all criticized the authorities for charging the officer not with murder but with the lesser charge of manslaughter. They also want to know why she was not immediately arrested at the scene, but was allowed to go free until she was officially charged three days later. They are demanding that Officer Guyger, who remains on paid administrative leave, be fired.

“The reasonableness of her explanation is what’s called into question,” said State Senator Royce West, a Democrat who is African-American and whose district includes the South Side Flats. “The question is whether or not she saw a black man and then decided to shoot. Regardless of whether or not he was in the right place or not, her first impulse appeared to be that she was going to fire her weapon.”

Robert L. Rogers, a lawyer representing Officer Guyger and a former Dallas County prosecutor, declined to comment. Officer Guyger has been a Dallas officer for four years and four months, joining the force in 2014 in her first job as a law enforcement officer in Texas.

Some of the officer’s colleagues and superiors said they believe her version of events, and called the shooting, as one put it, “a bad accident.” One police official said Officer Guyger was not intoxicated at the time of the shooting, and that she had a good reputation as part of the Southeast Patrol Division’s Crime Response Team, of which she was a member.

“They go out and arrest the most dangerous people in the city,” said the official, who asked to remain anonymous because he was not authorized to speak to the press about the case. “You’ve got to have your head on right. You’ve got to be brave, dedicated, hard-charging. She was all of those things.”

Officer Guyger was involved in another shooting last year. A man grabbed her Taser during a confrontation, and she shot him in the stomach. The man survived, and a grand jury later declined to indict her.
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The official said Officer Guyger did not have any complaints filed against her accusing her of violating a person’s civil rights. The official said the length of her shift that day was a key factor in the shooting. The police officers’ union has publicly urged city officials to address the long shifts that have resulted from budget cuts, which have led to low morale and a mass exodus of officers.

“You cannot have people working that hard and not have a mistake, and it can be life-threatening mistakes,” the official said.

Officers said the shooting reminded them of a similar case in 2016. In that case, an N.B.A. player was fatally shot in Dallas after he broke into what he thought was his girlfriend’s apartment. Bryce Dejean-Jones, 23, a player for the New Orleans Pelicans, kicked open the door to an apartment in the middle of the night, startling the man who lived there, the authorities said. As Mr. Dejean-Jones kicked the bedroom door, the man shot him, the police said.

Mr. Dejean-Jones had been trying to get into his girlfriend’s apartment, which was directly above the unit he broke into, his agent said at the time.

The floors of the South Side Flats, a modern luxury apartment building with 288 units built in 2015 at the edge of downtown Dallas, have a similar design and layout: well-lighted, with whirring ceiling fans and bare concrete floors. Residents said it was easy to get confused in the halls, and some said they had gone to the wrong apartment occasionally. The light panels near Mr. Jean’s door and Officer Guyger’s door are the same color.

Her mistake appeared to begin when she parked on the fourth floor, not the third floor where she lived, for reasons that remain unclear. She had lived in the complex for a short time, fewer than 60 days, officials said.

On Thursday, minutes after Mr. Jean’s funeral at Greenville Avenue Church of Christ in nearby Richardson, his father, Bertrum Jean, 54, stood in an upstairs dining hall and gym, leaning against a set of retractable bleachers.

He hugged those who approached him, and laughed at times. “He just wanted to be with me everywhere I go,” the elder Mr. Jean said, recalling when his son was 5. “I think I spoiled him.”

The elder Mr. Jean, who preaches at a Church of Christ congregation and works as a water and sewage inventory supervisor on St. Lucia, said he understands racial tensions exist in Dallas and in the United States, but what role that played in his son’s death, he said he was not certain.

“I believe it may have been an isolated incident,” he said. “I don’t know what to make of it, but I’m still not fearful. If my other son has to come up here to school, I will send him.”
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https://www.dallasnews.com/news/dal...nt-complex-killed-botham-jean-management-says

Dallas officer Amber Guyger has 'vacated' apartment at complex where she killed Botham Jean, management says

Dallas police Officer Amber Guyger has moved out of the Cedars apartment complex where she fatally shot 26-year-old Botham Jean on Sept. 6, a manager told residents in an email Sunday.

WFAA-TV (Channel 8) obtained a copy of the email, which states that management at the South Side Flats complex cannot comment on the shooting while an investigation is ongoing.

"However, we are able to confirm that the other resident involved has vacated her apartment and no longer resides at our community," the email reads.

When a South Side Flats employee was reached by phone Sunday, she referred questions about the shooting to the Dallas Police Department. An apartment manager did not immediately respond to emailed questions asking when Guyger moved out and whether she left voluntarily.

Guyger, 30, has told authorities that she thought she was in her own apartment when she shot Jean, who she thought was burglarizing her apartment. It's unclear how Guyger got into the apartment, and the accounts differ between the Dallas Police Department and Texas Rangers records.

In an arrest-warrant affidavit, written by the Texas Rangers, police said Guyger had entered her key with an electronic chip into the keyhole of Jean's apartment door. The affidavit says the door was slightly ajar, so the force of putting her key inside pushed open the door.
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https://www.crescent-news.com/on_th...cle_80a46913-19b3-5313-aa7b-b6363306841a.html

Calling Dallas officer ‘the devil,’ Botham Jean’s mother urges police to ‘come clean’


DALLAS — The mother of Botham Jean demanded Friday that officer Amber Guyger, whom she called “the devil,” be fired from the Dallas Police Department for fatally shooting her son in his apartment.

“Give me justice for my son because he does not deserve what he got,” Allison Jean said, flanked by her attorneys and Dallas activists in the lobby of a downtown Dallas office building. “I will not sit back and see that justice does not prevail.”

Allison Jean denounced law enforcement for releasing a public document Thursday, the day of her son’s funeral, that showed 10.4 grams of marijuana was found in his apartment at the South Side Flats where he lived one floor above Guyger.

Guyger, 30, told police she went to the wrong floor around 10 p.m. on Sept. 6, mistaking her upstairs neighbor’s apartment for her own. She says she shot the 26-year-old because she thought he was a burglar and that the door was unlocked and ajar.

Jean’s family has said he would not have left the door unlocked, and the grieving mother condemned any attempts to “assassinate” her son’s character by associating him with drugs.

“The information received yesterday, to me, was worse than the call that I got on the morning of Friday, Sept. 7,” Allison Jean said. “To have my son smeared in such a way, I think shows that the persons who are really nasty, who are really dirty and are going to cover up for the devil, Amber Guyger.”

Guyger was arrested Sunday on a manslaughter charge and was booked into the Kaufman County Jail. The Texas Rangers investigated the case at the request of Dallas Police Chief U. Renee Hall.

A spokesman for the Rangers declined to comment on the investigation, saying the case was handed over to the Dallas County district attorney’s office Tuesday.

Attorneys for Jean’s family and legal experts say murder is the more appropriate charge. Manslaughter involves a reckless act. But legal experts have said that if Guyger shot and killed Jean because she thought he was a burglar, she intended to shoot him.

The family’s attorneys also insist that Dallas police obtained a search warrant for Jean’s apartment so they could use the marijuana to smear his character.

“Twenty-six years without a blemish and it took being murdered by a white Dallas police officer in his own home to make Botham Jean a criminal,” said Lee Merritt, an attorney for the Jean family.

Robert Kepple, executive director of the Texas District and County Attorneys Association, said law enforcement is taught to obtain warrants when they don’t have permission for a search. Botham Jean is the only person who could have consented to a search.

“You want to make sure there’s no question about your right to be there,” Kepple said.


Warrants are sought even after first responders have already been inside to treat the injured and make sure the crime scene is secure.

“It’s common to back out,” put up crime scene tape and then ask for the warrant, he said.

Warrants are typically broad enough, Kepple said, to include any contraband like drugs or illegal weapons.

Law enforcement must also return an itemized list of what was seized with the search warrant. Leaving items off the list could be problematic.

“It’s a transparency thing. It’s a check on the government,” said Kepple, whose nonprofit supports and provides education for Texas prosecutors.

Search warrant affidavits and what was seized are public records. Journalists regularly ask for copies of those records as part of their work. The records aren’t only available to the media. The public can also request copies. These records can sometimes be sealed for a time, but that it rare.

Allison Jean said she wants to know whether Guyger’s apartment and car were searched. Guyger’s blood was taken by investigators and Allison Jean demanded the results be made public.

“I’m calling on the Dallas officials,” said Allison Jean, who lives in the Caribbean island of St. Lucia where she was a government official. “Please come clean. Give me justice for my son.”

Authorities have not said whether Guyger’s apartment or car were searched.

Court records released Friday, however, show that an investigator for the district attorney’s office obtained a search warrant to seize Guyger’s front door, the electronic lock and data inside the electronic lock.

The data could potentially show when Guyger’s front door was locked and unlocked, indicating whether she went home before going to Jean’s apartment.

The underlying affidavit outlining probable cause for the warrant was sealed by state District Judge Brandon Birmingham.

No warrants for her car or inside her apartment have been released, but such a warrant would not be necessary if she consented to a search.

Merritt, an attorney for the Jean family, said the Dallas Police Department tainted the investigation before handing it off to the Texas Rangers. But, he said, he believes it’s possible that Dallas County District Attorney Faith Johnson will pursue a murder charge against Guyger.

“I’m confident this district attorney’s office is taking this case seriously,” he said. “They have reassured us that, despite the charge of manslaughter, which we believe is the inappropriate charge, that they are keeping all options open.”

But, he said, “I’ve lost faith in the Dallas Police Department and their investigators. I’ve lost faith in the Texas Rangers.”

Another attorney for the family, Darryl Washington, said “there is no question this officer should have been terminated.”

Hall has placed Guyger, who has been with the department nearly five years, on paid administrative leave.
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https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/s...r-guyger-investigation-wages-on/287-595601181

Dallas DA asks for ‘calm in our communities’ as Amber Guyger investigation wages on

The Dallas County district attorney promises "no stone will be left unturned" in the Amber Guyger investigation, but asks for the public's patience.

Dallas County District Attorney Faith Johnson is calling for “calm in our communities” while promising that a round-the-clock investigation wages on in the shooting death of Botham Jean.

A message posted to the D.A.’s website Monday afternoon called the investigation into Dallas officer Amber Guyger – who has admitted to shooting and killing Jean in his apartment on Sept. 6 – a “top priority” and asked the community to “allow the legal process to work.”

“I want to stress that a rush to judgment serves no one,” the message reads. “I am asking citizens to have faith and patience during the investigation process.”

The statement promised to leave “no stone unturned” in the investigation.

Guyger shot Jean in his own eastern Dallas apartment Sept. 6 after she claims she mistook his apartment for hers and thought he was an intruder. Guyger had worked a 13-hour shift that day and was in uniform when she returned to the apartment complex.

Dallas police turned the investigation over to the Texas Rangers three days after the shooting. That agency completed an initial investigation and turned it over to the district attorney’s office.

The D.A.’s office has been conducting its own investigation since the night of the shooting. A team of three prosecutors, four investigators, a victim’s rights coordinator and a forensic analyst is now working the case for Johnson’s office.

“The District Attorney’s Office becomes involved to ensure a fully transparent and unbiased investigation conducted by an independent, uninvolved law enforcement agency,” Monday’s message reads.

“While I understand that many citizens are outraged over the shooting and have a lot of unanswered questions right now, I urge you to allow the legal process to work. I can assure you that my team is working night and day to get to the bottom of what happened on the night of September 6.”

Activists and community members have been restless in the wake of the shooting, organizing several rallies in Dallas and even outside AT&T Stadium ahead of the Cowboys’ primetime game against the New York Giants Sunday night.

Questions have swirled about the circumstances leading up to the shooting. Claims that Guyger found the door “slightly ajar” have been rebutted by attorneys citing accounts from neighbors who allegedly heard Guyger banging on the door. Door locks were taken from Guyger's and Jean's apartment.

Rumors that Guyger and Jean knew each other have been debunked by police sources and the Jean family’s legal team.

“Releasing details of any case before an investigation is completed is extremely detrimental,” Johnson’s statement reads. “It can cause evidence to be thrown out or allow a change of venue in a trial in the event a jury pool is tainted by leaked information.”

Late last week, Jean attorneys were outraged by the release of a search warrant that discovered marijuana in Jean’s apartment. The search warrant, though, is routine during a criminal investigation.

In cases where a person cannot voluntarily give consent for a search, then law requires investigators to obtain a search warrant. Otherwise, investigators would risk that the evidence that was obtained would later be thrown out by a judge.
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https://www.dallasnews.com/news/cri...near-att-stadium-protest-botham-jeans-killing

9 arrested on traffic obstruction charges during protest of Botham Jean's killing will stay in jail overnight


Nine people were arrested Sunday after blocking traffic during protests outside of a Dallas Cowboys game at AT&T Stadium, Arlington police said.

Each were booked into the Arlington city jail between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. Sunday and moved Monday to Tarrant County jail. By late Monday, bond had not been set for any of them on the traffic obstruction charges.

The people arrested were Stephanie Briant, 29, Darryl Burnham, 31, Miracle Freeman, 29, Arminta Jeffreys, 25, Michael Lowe, 38, Melissa Perry, 33, Davante Peters, 25, Lelani Russell, 25, and Dion Williams, 29.

They were part of a protest that featured around 75 people marched holding two coffins outside the stadium ahead of the Cowboys home opener Sunday night. One coffin represented 26-year-old Botham Jean, who was fatally shot by Dallas officer Amber Guyger. The other represented Oshae Terry, the 24-year-old killed by Arlington officers a few days before Jean's death.

The protesters were arrested about 7:30 p.m. Sunday after they had blocked traffic at N. Collins Street and E. Randol Mill Road outside of AT&T Stadium, Arlington police spokesman Lt. Christopher Cook said.

Arlington police can't set bond for arrests involving Class B misdemeanor charges or higher. Inmates had to first be transferred to the Tarrant County Jail and go before a magistrate to have their bond set, Cook said.

Attorney S. Lee Merritt, who is representing Jean's family, said in a written statement that the nine protesters split off from the rest of the group and "peacefully engaged in an act of civil disobedience by obstructing traffic into the game."

"This treatment of citizens outraged by the very corruption from which they now suffer is intolerable," Merritt said in the statement.

Merritt said he learned Monday evening the protesters would remain in jail overnight.

Merritt said police could've opted to charge the protesters with a lesser Class C misdemeanor, rather than the Class B highway obstruction charge, so they could be cited and released. But Cook said the charge was the only option police had.

The protesters want Guyger fired from the Dallas Police Department and charged with murder. Guyger was charged with manslaughter three days after the shooting and remains on administrative leave pending the outcome of an internal investigation, police said last week.

Protests say they "will continue indefinitely in the city of Dallas and Arlington until justice is served," Merritt said. Another rally is set to begin at 7 p.m. Monday in front of Dallas police headquarters.

In a statement Monday evening, Dallas County District Attorney Faith Johnson is urging the community to be patient as her office investigates the shooting.

The district attorney said in a prepared statement Monday evening that she understood public outrage over Jean's killing but asked residents to let the legal process play out.

"Now is the time to ask for calm in our communities until all the facts are known and presented to a Grand Jury," Johnson said in the statement. "I also am asking citizens to have faith and patience during the investigation process. You have my word that no stone will be left unturned as we work to uncover all the facts in this case."

She said that it would be impossible to provide a timeline for when the case could go to a grand jury.

In the case of Roy Oliver, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison for the murder of 15-year-old Jordan Edwards, Oliver was indicted on a murder charge two and a half months after the shooting.

"That's as fast as you can possibly do it," Dallas County first assistant district attorney Michael Snipes previously told The Dallas Morning News.
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Shit ain't gonna end until there's a precinct's worth of blood spilled in the streets. If this chief don't get it together and charge the bitch with murder 1 AND have her convicted along with a release of all the details I'm predicting an unheard of level of violence towards cops in Dallas coming soon.
 
Goldie said:
They're still charging her with "Manslaughter" ? smh
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They can't charge her wit 1st degree...UNLESS something comes out that they had a personal relationship, and this killing was intentional.

Over charging and you'll run the risk of her gettin off Scott free.
 
IP360 said:
They can't charge her wit 1st degree...UNLESS something comes out that they had a personal relationship, and this killing was intentional.

Over charging and you'll run the risk of her gettin off Scott free.
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True... sadly, more often than not these muthafuckas get off scott free anyway... smmfh
 
https://www.dallasnews.com/news/cri...liver-break-amber-guyger-case-dallas-da-hopes

Could data from Botham Jean's door lock deliver a break in Amber Guyger case? Dallas DA hopes so


The electronic locks to Botham Jean and Amber Guyger's apartment doors could hold the evidence investigators need to contradict or confirm what the Dallas officer told police about how she entered her neighbor's apartment the night he was shot and killed.

The Dallas County district attorney's office seized the locks from Apartments 1478 and 1378 at the South Side Flats, where Jean lived on the fourth floor and Guyger lived on the third, just below him. She has since moved out.

Guyger, 30, killed Jean on Sept. 6 when she said she parked on the wrong floor and mistook Jean's apartment for her own.

The officer, who was off duty but in uniform, said she pushed open the door to the darkened apartment and, believing Jean was a burglar, fired two shots.

One bullet struck the 26-year-old in the chest, and he died at a hospital.

A search warrant obtained Sept. 11 granted the district attorney's office permission to pull any data stored inside the locks. Law enforcement also obtained reports about access to locks in both apartments and to the elevators. The contents have not been made public.

The report should show whether Guyger unlocked her own door before going to Jean's apartment. It would also show whether she placed her key in Jean's door.

It's unclear whether the data would show whether Jean unlocked the door from the inside around the time of the shooting

If data stored inside the locks does show Jean's door was locked, it would support statements by Jean's family's attorneys who say witnesses heard someone banging on Jean's door shouting "let me in!"

Alternatively, the data could show the door was unlocked and ajar, as Guyger told police.

An electronic lock that resembles the ones at South Side Flats stores data on 200 entries, according to a description of the lock by the Swiss company Dormakaba. That lock, like the ones for Guyger's and Jean's apartment, is accessed with an RFID key — a key that uses radio-frequency identification.

Inserting the key into a hole above the handle unlocks or locks the deadbolt. The data stored inside, according to Dormakaba's website, includes the time and date the lock was accessed. It also stores the identification number or user name of the person whose key was used.

So, the locks could reveal when Guyger and Jean's doors were last locked and unlocked. The data could also show when Jean accessed his apartment last with the key.

The company did not respond to a request for comment about what additional information, if any, the locks could contain.
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http://www.keranews.org/post/after-...icer-be-fired-those-decisions-often-take-time

After The Death Of Botham Jean, Should A Dallas Officer Be Fired? Those Decisions Often Take Time.


A dozen days after an unarmed black man was shot and killed in his apartment in Dallas, the white off-duty police officer who killed him remains on the job.

Officer Amber Guyger’s continued employment — she’s currently on paid administrative leave — has stoked the growing anger surrounding the unprecedented shooting and become a point of contention in the state’s highest-profile political campaign.

At a Dallas rally Friday night, Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Beto O’Rourke suggested she should be fired.

“I don't understand given the actions how anyone can come to any other conclusion,” he told KDFW-TV.

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz later criticized that stance, saying he wished O’Rourke “and Democrats weren’t so quick to always blame the police officer.” He described the shooting as a tragedy and nightmare, but said we have a legal system in place to learn the facts.

Though Guyger already faces a charge of manslaughter, it’s not unusual for her to still have her job at this stage of the investigation. Police departments often struggle to balance giving a fair review of an officer’s actions and ensuring accountability after a seemingly-unjustified shooting or incident. While there have been cases, including some in Dallas, where officers are fired quickly after a shooting, the process usually takes time.

Still, in a case where the facts that have been made public seem to clearly put the officer in the wrong, many think 12 days is too long to wait for action.

On Sept. 6, Guyger returned to her apartment complex after a shift as a Dallas police officer, entered the wrong unit — exactly one floor above her own — and shot and killed the unarmed resident, 26-year-old Botham Shem Jean, according to her arrest affidavit. Guyger said she mistook the apartment for her own and thought Jean was an intruder; Jean’s family lawyer has said the officer’s statement is “demonstrably false.”

Since then, protests have erupted across the city, including at the Dallas Cowboys’ first home game of the season Sunday night, where activists marched with coffins to AT&T Stadium, according to The Dallas Morning News. The Dallas Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Guyger’s status.

The city’s reaction stands in stark contrast to the Balch Springs shooting death of 15-year-old Jordan Edwards last year. The officer, Roy Oliver, was fired by the smaller Dallas County department three days after the shooting and sentenced to 15 years in prison on a murder conviction last month.

But Oliver’s firing, and entire case, moved fast. Often, disciplinary action takes time, if it happens at all. In El Paso, for example, off-duty police officer Jorge Gonzalez was indicted in 2011 after he shot and paralyzed a man who rear-ended him, but he continued to work for the city police department until he he was fired in 2014 for unrelated reasons.

In Dallas, three officers indicted on misdemeanor charges in the 2016 death of an unarmed man high on cocaine are still employed by the department, according to The News. Another was fired weeks after he was indicted on an aggravated assault charge in June 2017 resulting from a fatal shooting five months earlier.

The reason for the delay often stems from internal processes, potential appeals and the departmental investigation taking a backseat to the criminal investigation, according to Howard Williams, a former police chief in San Marcos and a criminal justice lecturer at Texas State University.

“There are laws that protect the employee … you don’t want to jump in right away and make a hasty decision,” Williams said. “[The decision] has to happen in its own time through its own process, and you have to be very careful not to let the internal process interfere with the criminal one.”

Dallas, however, has taken relatively quick disciplinary action against officers in the past. Officers Amy Wilburn and Cardan Spencer were both fired in 2013 by former Chief David Brown within three weeks of nonfatal shootings — before their eventual criminal indictments and guilty pleas. Another officer fired in 2014 after allegedly using excessive force with a panhandler, however, was rehired after a grand jury declined to indict him, The News reported.

Charley Wilkison, head of the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas, said he’s sure the police department is following the rules, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be action.

“They don’t mind firing cops in Dallas; they do it all the time,” he said.

But coming on the heels of a murder conviction for another fatal shooting of a black person, Jean’s family and attorneys are demanding results now.

“She should not still be on the payroll for the City of Dallas,” said Lee Merritt, Jean’s family attorney who also represents Jordan Edwards’ family, at a press conference on Friday. “The City of Dallas needs to send out a message that there’s no place for a woman like that on the police force. This is non-negotiable.”
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konceptjones said:
She better get ready to an hero or make a run for the border.
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When you're on the 4th floor of the building you'll see the sky. She would have to park on the 3rd and go up the stairs or the elevator to the 4th floor. She's just got caught up in that lie
 
https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/a...cil-members-under-investigation/287-596356086

Alleged threats on Dallas City Council members under investigation

An alleged threat made against the lives of some Dallas City Council members is under investigation.


DALLAS – An alleged threat made against the lives of some Dallas City Council members is under investigation.

Several city council members confirmed they received calls from City Manager T.C. Broadnax, on Wednesday afternoon, alerting them to the threat. The council members say were told someone called the City Secretary’s office communicating that there is an alleged threat to shoot any council member spotted on the street.

The council members say they were told the threats are due to the City’s handling of the Botham Jean shooting investigation. Jean was a 26-year-old accountant and bible school teacher who was shot and killed, while in his own home, by Dallas Police officer Amber Guyger on Sept. 6, 2018. Guyger, who lives directly below Jean, claims she thought she was entering her own apartment when she entered his home and shot him. The officer is facing manslaughter charges and remains on paid administrative leave.

The City Manager’s office is taking the threat seriously, according to council members. They say security measures are being evaluated, at this time.
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