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Trial Opens for Former Officer Who Killed Unarmed Black Man in His Apartment Trial Opens for Former Officer Who Killed Unarmed Black Man in His Apartment
(about 3 hours later)
DALLAS — A white female off-duty police officer who killed an unarmed black man in his Dallas apartment last year in a shooting that heightened racial tensions goes on trial for murder on Monday in a case that has angered, puzzled and captivated the city for months. DALLAS — Botham Shem Jean posed no threat to the off-duty police officer who shot and killed him as he was watching television in his Dallas apartment last year, and in the final startled moments of his life, he had no chance to tell the officer she had entered the wrong apartment, a prosecutor told jurors on Monday, the opening day of the officer’s murder trial.
The former officer, Amber R. Guyger, 31, was returning home from her patrol shift in September 2018 when, she claimed, she entered what she thought was her own apartment. While standing at an apartment one floor above her own, she fired her weapon twice at her 26-year-old neighbor, Botham Shem Jean, striking him once in the torso and killing him. The former officer, Amber R. Guyger, 31, was returning home from her patrol shift in September 2018 when she entered what she said she believed was her own apartment. While standing at an apartment exactly one floor above her own, she fired her weapon twice at Mr. Jean, her 26-year-old neighbor, striking him once in the torso and killing him.
Ms. Guyger told the police she thought Mr. Jean was an intruder and that she was under the mistaken impression that she was standing in her own doorway when she opened fire. Mr. Jean’s family and supporters, including many in the city’s black community, found Ms. Guyger’s version of events unbelievable. Mr. Jean had a large, red doormat that stuck out on the bare concrete floors of the building’s brightly lit hallways. Ms. Guyger had no doormat outside her unit. The shooting, yet another case of a white police officer killing an unarmed black man, has angered, puzzled and captivated the city for months. Lawyers laid out the framework of the case in opening statements on Monday, but they shed little light on the unanswered questions that continue to swirl around the case.
And her confusion that night lasted not just a few moments but for several minutes: She had parked on the fourth floor of the building’s parking garage, not the third floor, where she lived. Ms. Guyger told the police she was under the mistaken impression that she was standing in her own doorway and thought Mr. Jean was an intruder who was actively threatening her when she opened fire.
For years, Mr. Jean had gone out of his way to avoid even routine encounters with the police and shunned casual clothes for dressier ones, his mother, Allison Jean, told The New York Times in an interview last year. But in his opening statement in a downtown Dallas courtroom on Monday, Jason Hermus, a prosecutor with the Dallas County district attorney’s office, told the jury that Ms. Guyger had made a series of fatal errors, violated police protocols and shot Mr. Jean when he had made no move to advance toward her.
“I always told him, ‘Why do you have to be so dressy?’” Ms. Jean recalled. “He said, ‘Mom, I don’t want to be stopped. I don’t want for them to think I’m somebody I’m not.’” “He was sitting in his living room, in shorts and a T-shirt, watching TV and eating a bowl of vanilla ice cream, what any one of us would have been doing,” Mr. Hermus told the jury, referring to Mr. Jean by his nickname of Bo.
Ms. Guyger has told investigators that the door was slightly ajar and that it opened when she tried to unlock it. But lawyers for Mr. Jean’s family have said that the door was closed, and that neighbors heard a commotion before the shooting, including someone banging on his door and shouting. Mr. Jean’s relatives and their lawyers said Mr. Jean and the officer did not know each other. “When all of sudden, Amber Guyger comes through his front door uninvited. The light from the hallway must have flooded his apartment, the noise from the door must have scared him to death,” he said. “As Bo was trying to get up off the couch to find out what this intruder is doing coming into his home, she is leveling off her gun having acquired her target. And she shoots at him twice. No opportunity for de-escalation. No opportunity for him to surrender.”
A host of unanswered questions could finally be answered as testimony begins in Ms. Guyger’s trial. A jury, if it decides to convict, could find her guilty of murder or of a lesser charge such as manslaughter. The question is not whether Ms. Guyger shot Mr. Jean, but whether the jury believes it was a case of mistaken identity, as Ms. Guyger claims, and that she believed she was acting in self-defense. Mr. Hermus said the path of the bullet — down through his heart to a point between his stomach and his back — showed that Mr. Jean was either getting up from a seated position or was “in a cowering position” hiding behind a three-foot wall. It is likely he took a few steps after being shot, the prosecutor said.
In a previous interview, one of her lawyers, Robert L. Rogers, said his client should not be convicted of murder because she believed that she was inside her own apartment that night. Under police protocol, he said, officers confronted with such a perceived threat are supposed to stay outside the residence and wait for backup. Ms. Guyger’s decision to fire her weapon from the door, he said, was one of several “unreasonable choices” she had made that night, preceded by her failure to notice she had parked on the wrong floor.
“I think the investigation supports that,” Mr. Rogers said. “I think everybody that objectively looks at this believes that she believes she was in her apartment. I believe it was reasonable for her to believe that she was being threatened with an intruder in her home and therefore she acted in self-defense. The law justifies her actions.” She should have realized her mistake, he said, when she saw the large, bright-red doormat Mr. Jean had outside his apartment door — a clear distinction from Ms. Guyger’s apartment, which had no doormat. For emphasis, Mr. Hermus pulled the doormat out of an evidence bag and showed it to the jury.
Before the trial even got underway on Monday morning amid heavy security and large crowds, the defense demanded a mistrial after a controversy emerged involving prosecutors and the news media. But one of Ms. Guyger’s lawyers, Robert L. Rogers, gave a much different account. Mr. Jean was not seated or cowering when he was shot, he said, but was coming toward Ms. Guyger; he was about 13 feet away from her when she opened fire, he said. The officer, in fear for her life, shouted “Hands!” he said, while Mr. Jean was saying, “Hey! Hey!”
Judge Tammy Kemp of the District Court in Dallas had issued a gag order prohibiting lawyers in the case from commenting on it in the news media. At issue was an interview that aired Sunday on the local Fox affiliate in which the Dallas County district attorney, John Creuzot, discussed the issue of a murder charge versus a manslaughter charge. “There is zero physical evidence of this preposterous scene where Mr. Jean is getting up, and gets shot in the heart and somehow walks to the middle of the apartment, towards the person that shot him and then collapses backwards,” Mr. Rogers said. He added, “You’ll see that it is impossible for him to have been sitting where they say he was.”
“I’ve studied what we have and I feel comfortable that we’re going forward on it, but I don’t have any idea as to how it will end up,” he told the TV station. Mr. Rogers said Ms. Guyger had worked 40 hours over the previous four days, including a 13.5-hour shift on the day of the shooting. He said she was tired and had not noticed that she parked on the wrong floor and was standing on a doormat that was not hers. Mr. Rogers said the hallways and parking garage in the complex looked the same, and it was reasonable for her to have mistakenly entered the wrong apartment. There had been 46 cases, he said, in which tenants in the complex had mistakenly placed their keys in the wrong doors.
The defense lodged a complaint about the interview, and the judge, who appeared visibly frustrated, said she was going to take a recess to watch a video of the interview. “How is that unreasonable?” Mr. Rogers asked the jury. “How is that selfish and evil on Amber Guyger’s part?”
When the judge returned to the bench, she did not order a mistrial; instead she said the jury would be seated, with opening statements to follow. The start of the trial took place amid heavy security and large crowds at the Frank Crowley Courts Building in downtown Dallas. The seventh-floor courtroom reached capacity on Monday morning, leaving a crowd of spectators, reporters and civil rights activists in the hallway.
Ms. Guyger, who is free on bond during the trial, was first put on administrative leave after the shooting and later fired by the Dallas Police Department. She was initially charged with manslaughter. Mr. Jean’s supporters held a series of demonstrations, including disrupting a Dallas City Council meeting, calling for a more serious charge. Months later, a Dallas County grand jury indicted her for murder. Seven of the 12 jurors and four alternates are African-American, four are white and five are of other races and ethnicities.
Mr. Jean, who was from the island nation of St. Lucia in the Caribbean, was alone in his one-bedroom apartment on Sept. 6, 2018, in a sleek complex a block away from the Dallas Police Department’s headquarters. He had texted his sister that he planned to watch a football game on TV that night. Mr. Jean worked for the auditing firm PwC, formerly known as PricewaterhouseCoopers. The jury, if it decides to convict, could find the officer guilty of murder or of a lesser charge such as manslaughter. The question for the jury is not whether Ms. Guyger shot Mr. Jean — that is not in dispute — but whether the jury believes it was a case of mistaken identity, as Ms. Guyger claims, and that she thought she was acting in self-defense.
He lived in Unit 1478 on the fourth floor of the South Side Flats complex. Ms. Guyger lived directly below him in Unit 1378 on the third floor. Ms. Guyger, who worked for the Dallas Police Department for about five years, had been involved in a previous shooting. In that case, she shot a man in the stomach after he grabbed her Taser weapon during a confrontation. The man survived, and a grand jury later declined to indict her.
That night, Ms. Guyger was returning home after working a 14-hour shift. She 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. She was initially put on administrative leave after the most recent shooting, and later was fired and charged with manslaughter. Mr. Jean’s supporters held a series of demonstrations, including disrupting a Dallas City Council meeting, calling for a more serious charge. Months later, a Dallas County grand jury returned the current murder indictment.
Some neighbors disputed Ms. Guyger’s contention that it was too dark to see inside the apartment. They said the lighting in the hallway is bright and illuminates the inside of the apartments when doors are open.
Ms. Guyger, who had been with the Dallas Police Department for four years, had been involved in a previous shooting. In that case, she shot a man in the stomach after he grabbed her Taser weapon during a confrontation. The man survived, and a grand jury later declined to indict her.
Marina Trahan Martinez reported from Dallas, and Manny Fernandez from Houston.Marina Trahan Martinez reported from Dallas, and Manny Fernandez from Houston.