Pete Freedman
The Dallas Cop Who Shot And Killed Botham Jean In His Own Home On Thursday Turned Herself In And Was Booked Into Kaufman County Jail On Sunday.
Three days after shooting and killing 26-year-old Botham Jean in his own apartment on Thursday night, Dallas police officer Amber Guyger was taken into custody on Sunday night on charges of manslaughter.
The 30-year-old, a four-year veteran of the Dallas Police Department, reportedly turned herself in to Kaufman County jail at 7:20 p.m., shortly after Texas Rangers issued a warrant for her arrest. The Department of Public Safety had been in charge of the investigation since Friday, having taken it over from the Dallas Police Department at the request of DPD chief Renee Hall.
Per the Dallas Morning News, DPS notes that the warrant for Guyger’s arrest was issued after “subsequent coordination with the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office,” which had been simultaneously conducting its own investigation into the matter at the request of Dallas mayor Mike Rawlings.
Guyger’s bond was set at $300,000. She posted bail within an hour of her arrest, and was subsequently released from custody.
She is not expected to stand trial in the case for some time, but news of the charges levied against her should at least somewhat calm increasing frustrations over the belief that Guyger was perhaps receiving special treatment because of her status as a cop. Over the course of the three days that passed between the shooting and her being booked, an abundance of theories as to the delay had begun to fester on social media.
Here’s what we know.
Botham Jean, a Dallas resident and a native of the Caribbean island native of St. Lucia, was just 26 years old. (Photo via Facebook.)
Just after 10 p.m. on Thursday, September 6, Guyger — off-duty but still in uniform after having just completed a 12-hour shift — shot and killed Jean while he was standing inside his own apartment. Guyger, who lives in the same South Side Flats complex in the Downtown Dallas-adjacent neighborhood of The Cedars, claims that she mistakenly believed Jean’s fourth-floor unit to be her own. After unsuccessfully attempting to open what Guyger says she thought was her own apartment’s locked door, Jean opened the door from the inside. An apparently still confused Guyger then used her department issued sidearm to shoot Jean. Guyger would then call 911 herself to report the shooting. Her report was processed as an “assist officer call,” and more cops arrived on the scene within four minutes of the call being made. After backup arrived, Jean was rushed to Baylor University Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. According to a statement made by Dallas police chief Renee Hall on Friday, the officers who responded to the call drew a blood sample from Guyger while on the scene in order “to test for drugs and alcohol” in her system.
An immigrant from St. Lucia, Jean worked as a risk assurance associate for PricewaterhouseCoopers and is being remembered by friends as a jovial, God-fearing man. Speaking on Saturday afternoon, Dallas mayor Mike Rawlings has described Jean’s death as a “tragedy,” calling him “exactly the sort of citizen we want to have in the city of Dallas” as well as “a potential leader for his city for decades to come.”
There remain, of course, a great deal more unknowns about Jean’s death and its investigation. While the charges being brought against Guyger answers a few of of them, most of our initial questions about this case still stand.