Murder of Botham Jean

She was the first Dallas police officer to be convicted of murder since the 1973 murder of Santos Rodriguez.

Amber Renée Guyger (born August 9, 1988) was 30 years old at the time of the shooting.

She had been on the Dallas police force for almost five years.

On the night of September 6, 2018, 26-year-old accountant Botham Jean was murdered in Dallas, Texas by off-duty Dallas Police Department patrol officer Amber Guyger, who entered Jean's apartment and fatally shot him.

Guyger, who said that she had entered Jean's apartment believing it was her own and believed Jean to be a burglar, was initially charged with manslaughter.

The absence of a murder charge led to protests and accusations of racial bias because Jean—an unarmed black man—was killed in his own home by a white off-duty officer who had apparently disregarded police protocols.

On November 30, 2018, Guyger was indicted on a charge of murder.

On September 6, 2018, Guyger left work at 9:33 p.m. at the end of a 13.5-hour shift.

She drove to the apartment complex, parking her vehicle in the parking garage of the fourth floor at 9:46 pm.

At this time, she was speaking over the phone with her partner, who had telephoned her during her journey home, in a conversation which lasted until 9:55 pm.

Still armed with a handgun but no longer wearing a body camera, Guyger walked to Jean's apartment, supposedly believing it was her own and failing to notice any signs that she was on the wrong floor, including a distinctive red doormat outside the apartment.

Attempting to unlock the door, she noticed it was ajar.

She entered the apartment and found Jean, who was sitting in his living room eating ice cream, unarmed.

Guyger fired her handgun twice at Jean, striking him in the chest.

She would later testify that she believed him to be an intruder, and that she feared he would kill her.

Guyger telephoned 9-1-1 at 9:59 pm.

Jean was taken to a nearby hospital, where he died from his wound.

The Texas Rangers investigated the shooting, which led to Guyger's arrest three days later.

Guyger was initially charged with manslaughter, but was later charged with murder.

The initial charge of manslaughter and the racial aspect of the shooting resulted in protests in the following days.

The Dallas Police Department placed Guyger on paid administrative leave after the shooting.

The department fired her on September 24, 2018.

Botham Shem Jean, a 26-year-old Black man, was a Harding University alumnus and an accountant for PwC.

Jean was born in Saint Lucia.

Following the shooting, an attorney representing Jean's family accused the Dallas Police Department of attempting to smear Jean's reputation by publicizing a police affidavit showing that police seized 0.368 oz of marijuana from Jean's apartment.

The lawyers also disputed the account of the incident that Guyger told officials, which was recorded in the arrest warrant affidavit, and asserted that two independent witnesses had come forward to give recollections that conflicted with Guyger's account.

An attorney for Jean's family asserted that witnesses claimed to have heard knocking on the door to Jean's apartment and that they had heard a woman's voice saying "Let me in, let me in."

On November 30, 2018, Guyger was indicted on murder charges by a Dallas County grand jury.

On October 1, 2019, she was found guilty of murder, and was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment the following day.

The ruling was upheld on appeal in 2021.

Botham Jean and Amber Guyger lived in South Side Flats, a four-story apartment complex located at the corner of South Lamar Street and Powhattan Street—two blocks northwest of the headquarters of Dallas Police Department, for which Guyger worked as a patrol officer—in the Cedars district in South Dallas.

The floor plans for each level of the building are mostly identical.

Guyger's apartment on the third floor (number 1378), in which she had lived for approximately two months by the time of the murder, was located directly below Jean's apartment on the fourth floor (number 1478).

On September 22, 2019, the day before the trial began, Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot took part in an interview regarding the trial in spite of a gag order issued by Judge Tammy Kemp in January of that year.

After questioning jurors, who reported that they had not seen the interview or other media coverage of the trial, Kemp denied the defense's motion for a mistrial, and sequestered the jury.

Manslaughter charges would have merely required proof of recklessness, while murder charges require proof that the defendant intended to kill.

The prosecutors alleged criminal intent for two reasons: firstly, they said her arrival at the wrong apartment (on the wrong floor) was not caused by tiredness, but rather caused by the conversation she had immediately prior with her lover trying to arrange a meeting that night, and secondly that she did not follow standard police protocol of not entering a building with a potential burglar inside and instead calling for backup from the police station, which was only two blocks away.

On October 1, 2019, Guyger was found guilty of murder.

The jury deliberated for six hours to reach the verdict of murder.

The jurors also considered the lesser charge of manslaughter.