Texas Rangers Amber Guyger was arrested and accused of manslaughter.
Amber Guyger, the Dallas police officer who authorities say shot and killed a well-liked businessman at his apartment, has been arrested by the Texas Rangers and is now accused of manslaughter.
A mugshot for Guyger was also released:
Amber Guyger’s mugshot
Guyger was arrested by the Texas Rangers in Kaufman County, Texas on the evening of September 9, 2018, and is being accused of manslaughter, jail records show.
Kaufman County Jail online records show that Guyger was in custody there. Her mugshot is also available on the public site. She was being held on $300,000 bail, but she was able to post that amount and was being released.
Amber Guyger jail records
According to the affidavit, Botham Jean’s apartment number was 1478 and Guyger lived one floor below him in apartment 1378. The apartments are “in most ways identical or extremely similar to the exterior surroundings, structure, and description of each other,” the document says.
The affidavit says that Jean was home alone when a uniformed Guyger, who had just ended her shift, arrived at the complex and parked on its fourth floor, which corresponds to the floor Jean lived on, not Guyger. Guyger “entered the building and walked down the fourth floor hallway to what she thought was her apartment,” the affidavit says. “She inserted a unique door key, with an electronic chip, into the door key hole.”
NEW: arrest affidavit for DPD officer Amber Guyger.
READ: what she told Texas Rangers which led to her manslaughter charge on Sunday in the death of #BothamShemJean @wfaa
However, the door, “which was slightly ajar prior to Guyger’s arrival, fully opened under the force of the key insertion,” the document contends.
After the door opened, “Guyger observed that the apartment interior was nearly completely dark. Additionally, the door being opened alerted Complainant Jean to Guyger’s presence. Believing she had encountered a burglar, which was described as a large silhouette, across the room in her apartment, Guyger drew her firearm, gave verbal commands that were ignored by Complainant Jean,” the affidavit alleges.
As a result, “Guyger fired her handgun two times striking the Complainant one time in the torso,” according to the affidavit, which says that Guyger entered the apartment, calling 911 and requesting police and EMS and provided first aid to Jean. She turned on the interior lights while on the phone with 911. Upon being asked where she was located by emergency dispatchers, she returned to the front door to observe the address and discovered she was at the wrong apartment,” the document alleges.
Guyger then called 911 from her cell phone requesting an ambulance and police to the location. Jean was transported to Baylor Hospital, where he died. Guyger remained at the scene and told the responding officers and 911 operator that she thought she was at her apartment when she shot Jean, according to the affidavit. Guyger “believed she was in her apartment and confronted by a burglar when she fired her handgun, striking and killing him,” the document says.
The news of Guyger’s arrest broke on the evening of September 9, 2018 after two days of confusion about whether Guyger, 30, would face charges in the bizarre shooting death of Botham Shem Jean, a Saint Lucian man who moved to America to attend a Christian college and later got a job in risk assessment for a prominent company in Dallas.
FacebookA woman posted videos on Instagram that she says show the aftermath of the Botham Jean police shooting.
Dallas police had said previously that it’s believed Guyger mistakenly went to Jean’s apartment, thinking it was her own, but that’s a story that has sparked outrage and disbelief on the Internet and also from Jean’s family. His family lawyer had said on Saturday that Guyger should be arrested swiftly.
The Dallas Morning News, in a story by Jennifer Emily, reported additional details in the case on September 9 through an unnamed law enforcement official. Among them, the Dallas newspaper reported that Jean’s door was unlocked, and it was dark inside when Guyger entered it, and she allegedly thought he was a burglar when she saw a person in the dark, shooting Jean a single time in the chest.
The Dallas newspaper reported that she had just worked a 15-hour shift, had parked on the wrong floor of the parking garage, and was one floor up from her actual floor.
You can read about the life of Botham Shem Jean here.
Here’s what you need to know:
Dallas Police Were Seeking a Manslaughter Warrant But the Texas Rangers, Who Took Over the Investigation, Waited Until Sunday
FacebookAmber Guyger
Amber Rene Guyger had not been subjected to arrest until the Sunday announcement from the Rangers that she was in custody and being accused of manslaughter. Dallas Police Chief Renee Hall previously said that police had enough evidence to seek a warrant for manslaughter, but police revealed on Saturday that the Texas Rangers, who took over the investigation, were still investigating and wanted to wait on any warrant. That clearly changed on Sunday with the arrest. Online records show that Amber Guyger has long ties to Texas and is 30-years-old.
“When the Rangers arrived, the investigation was turned over to them and they made the decision to postpone pursuing a warrant, until they could follow up on information that they received from the interview with the officer,” Dallas police explained, without elaborating. “The Texas Rangers will take the appropriate time to review the vast amount of evidence and information secured by Dallas Police Department investigators. This will allow them to be thorough in their decision as to how to move forward.”
Police have not released many specifics of the shooting, although they did say previously that they were testing Guyger for drugs and alcohol. “On September 6, 2018 at about 9:59 p.m., an off duty Dallas Police officer called police dispatch and said she was involved in a shooting at the apartments located at 1210 S. Lamar,” police wrote in a previous news release.
“Preliminary information suggests that the officer arrived home in full uniform after working a full shift. The officer reported to the responding officers that she entered the victim’s apartment believing that it was her own. At some point, the officer fired her weapon striking the victim. Responding officers administered aid to the victim, a 26-year-old male, at the scene. The victim was then transported to the hospital and pronounced deceased.”
Police said it wasn’t clear what interaction occurred between Jean and Guyger leading to the shooting.
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