The white Dallas cop who fatally shot her black neighbor after confusing his apartment for her own told investigators that he ignored her “verbal commands” and all she could see was a “large silhouette” — so she opened fire.
Amber Guyger had just entered the fourth floor residence, which was dark, and thought she was being burglarized, according to her arrest affidavit.
The 30-year-old claimed during police interviews that the front door was slightly ajar, so when she went to use her key it pushed open on its own.
Upon entering, Guyger said she saw the “large silhouette” — which turned out to be 26-year-old Botham Jean. She drew her service weapon and “gave verbal commands that were ignored” before eventually firing two shots, the affidavit says.
Jean was hit once in the torso and mortally wounded.
After realizing what she did, Guyger — who actually lives on the third floor, in the apartment right below Jean’s — told investigators that she turned on the lights and started performing CPR.
The four-year Dallas PD veteran eventually realized that she was in the wrong place after double checking the front door, the affidavit says, noting how the apartments’ “respective interior floorplans are in most ways identical or extremely similar.”
Guyger called 911 and confessed to shooting Jean by mistake. The young man was taken to Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, where he was pronounced dead.
His family disputed the claims made by Guyger in the affidavit during a press conference on Monday night with their lawyers.
“This affidavit is very self-serving,” seethed attorney Benjamin Crump. “Botham Jean is not here to give his version of what happened because he’s dead. Everything we know about this young man, this accountant, this meticulous person, is that he would have locked his door.”
Another lawyer, Lee Merritt, said there have been “independent witnesses” who have come forward to offer evidence that “refutes the claim that the door was propped open.”
“In fact, the evidence they’ve provided seems to indicate that the door would’ve been closed at the time,” Merritt added. “And [there’s] been other accounts available on the internet that [residents] heard knocking down the hallway followed by a woman’s voice that they believe to be officer Guyger, saying: ‘Let me in! Let me in!’ Followed by a series of knocking, followed by ‘Let me in!'”
Merritt said they shared the evidence with the DA’s office, and the witnesses later spoke with investigators.
“For them, it began to change the direction of how they were looking at the case,” Merritt explained.
Guyger was charged with manslaughter on Sunday after going days without being arrested.
Jean’s death wound up sparking widespread outrage on social media, with many believing that race played a role.
“Is this a white on black crime? Yes,” state Sen. Royce West told reporters on Saturday.
“It was a white, female Dallas police officer who shot and killed a person from St. Lucia of African descent,” he said. “Is this a race-related crime? Don’t know. I would hold any type of decision you make on what happened until all of the facts come in.”
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