Dallas officer kills man after mistaking his apartment for her own, police say

[neohippie]

Source: Dallas News

A Dallas officer fatally shot a 26-year-old man Thursday night when she entered his apartment near downtown, mistaking it for her own, police say.

The officer was not hurt in the 10 p.m. shooting at the South Side Flats at 1210 S. Lamar St., blocks from Dallas police headquarters in the Cedars.

Police officials say she had arrived at the complex after working a full shift and was still in full uniform when she entered the victim's apartment, thinking it was her home.

The victim was identified as Botham Shem Jean, a native of the Caribbean island nation of Saint Lucia. A graduate of Harding University in Arkansas, he's worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers, according to his LinkedIn.

Read more: https://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/2018/09/06/shooting-reported-cedars-near-dallas-police-headquarters?utm_content=bufferea6df&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

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Not sure how she doesn't realize that it's not her own apartment, or how she was able to enter unless the door was unlocked, which should have seemed strange to her right away.

Appears to be a case of living at home while Black

[qazplm135]

1. obviously the most important question is

did he comply?

[Blue_Tires]

17. Did he comply with WHAT?

He's minding his own business in his own goddamned apartment?

[qazplm135]

27. I see

your sarcasm detector is either broken or in the shop.

[BamaRefugee]

35. seems like 90% of the folks here need their sarcasm detector to get a reboot ;-)

[comradebillyboy]

36. You are so right

[Blue_Tires]

69. smilies aren't your best friend, they're your only friend:

Try using 'em next time

[qazplm135]

72. My apologies

for overestimating your ability to track a joke from a serious comment.

[Blue_Tires]

73. Save your snark for my ignore list, smart guy...

You aren't fooling me. I know exactly who you are.

Another day, and another low post count I never seen before pops up inflating his ballsack trying to start shit...

[qazplm135]

97. lol

ah a Greenwalder...should have known.

[CreekDog]

90. joke failure is failure of the joke teller

comedy isn’t your profession, obviously.

not

[qazplm135]

96. and yet two other people got it

funny that huh?

[CreekDog]

100. pretty poor ratio

you should try to communicate better.

[qazplm135]

103. roughly 50/50?

I'm fine with that ratio...particularly on the internet.

[CreekDog]

105. you went after 100% of the people that didn't get your joke or think it was funny

live up to your own standard don’t give us bs.

[qazplm135]

106. Went after?

Lol if I "go after" someone it will quite obvious.

[moriah]

107. Calm down, hon.

I got it, but there's this neat little box you can click above the area you type in your message tagged "Smilies".

Adding to your snark like that helps to spare one a great deal of grief.

Especially when, sadly, the officer IS saying she shot when he didn't comply with commands when startled in his own goddamn apartment.

[qazplm135]

108. plenty of folks got it

it's called not assuming the worst about someone and leaping to a response therein, and I'm plenty calm, but thanks.

[stonecutter357]

101. A joke about a racist PIG looking for a KILL ?

[qazplm135]

104. well yeah

who else would it be about?

[iluvtennis]

2. This is just sickening. #enough

[catbyte]

3. WTF? How the hell did she get into the apartment in the first place? Do all keys open all apts?

Something really stinks about this.

[csziggy]

9. Maybe she thought an intruder barricaded himself in her apartment?

From the article linked in the OP:

Police did not indicate that anyone else had witnessed the shooting, but two women who live on the second floor near where the shooting happened said they heard a lot of noise late Thursday.

"It was, like, police talk: 'Open up! Open up!'" 20-year-old Caitlin Simpson said.

Since Mr. Jean was a law abiding person he may not have realized his danger when complying with a police officer by opening the door to his own apartment.

My question is why she thought it was her apartment - was she intoxicated while in uniform?

[catbyte]

13. Thanks for that info. My browser timed out when I clicked on the link &

I couldn't read the full story. She's got a lot of explaining to do. Aren't the apartments numbered? Wow.

[Tiggeroshii]

59. I once mistook somebodys apt for my own

Floors in my building all look the same and i exited on the wrong floor and walked to the unit that mine would be at. I tried opening the door with my key and it didnt work. Then I looked at the unit number, felt terribly embarrassed and went to the right floor. Not once did it occur to me that I should scream, bang at the door and yell "open up!"

[csziggy]

60. Yeah, but you are not a cop with all the entitlement that provides

I still think there may have been mind altering substances involved - a beer or two after work, maybe. In which case the gun should have been secured before the first sip.

[Tiggeroshii]

62. Sounds like a neat job

[joshcryer]

64. Yeah, and they said they are not handling it like an "officer involved shooting."

Meaning that typically "officer involved shootings" are handled differently from, you know, criminal cases. They get more cover for killing people. She was trained with that knowledge. She knew she could just shoot a black guy in her apartment without worrying about any consequences.

I don't think she was intoxicated. At most she'll argue she was tired from a long work day and mistook which floor she was on. She's done for. Power tripping psychopath as many cops are.

[csziggy]

74. One way they are handling it as an "officer involved shooting"

She has NOT been interviewed yet. Imagine any regular citizen killing someone in their own home and not being immediately arrested and interrogated - it would not happen.

[joshcryer]

76. Absolutely, 100% correct.

If another citizen did this same thing, same exact thing, they'd be behind bars right now.

[bucolic_frolic]

4. Trigger happy

[lapfog_1]

5. I am left wondering if there is more to the story

like maybe they knew each other... and the wrong apartment story is just that... a story

"working a full shift" and 9pm in the evening do not sound like a recipe for wrong apartment and I'm so tired that I didn't notice and I better shoot the "intruder"

[Glorfindel]

6. "The officer was not hurt in the 10 p.m. shooting" Well, hip, hip, hooray!

It cheers me up immensely to know that the murdering cop was not hurt by her act of shooting an innocent man in his own apartment.

[kimmylavin]

37. Right?

Why the hell did they mention THAT?

[mountain grammy]

53. Exactly my thoughts

[PatrickforO]

7. OK, when I've been deeply involved in thinking about something else,

I've gone to the wrong car.

Maybe two or three times in my nearly three score years.

But WTF???

How could you possibly go the the wrong apartment? I guess I can see how that might happen in some of these complexes...ok...but you get there and the door is unlocked. Did you lock it? If you're a cop you surely did.

So, here's the moment of truth. Do you check the unit number on the door and make sure it's yours?

Do you push the door open a little and call, "Is there anyone in there?"

Or, do you pull out your gun, and go in, fearing an intruder?

Well, clearly she did the latter.

Then, once she got in there, we have another WTF??? moment. How in the hell could she not recognize the apartment was not hers based on its furnishings and decorations. So here's another moment of truth.

Do you look around and say, "Oh, geez, I'm sorry...I'm in the wrong place. I thought this was my apartment, the door was unlocked and I came in thinking there was an intruder."

Or do you notice the black guy and start blasting. Clearly she did the latter.

But you know what? If I was on a jury, I'd have to stop cold at the fundamental question that here's somebody who is ostensibly trained in observation, and she is unable to use those skills to ascertain she's in the wrong place? And how in the hell, with those finely honed observational skills, did she go up the wrong hallway or whatever and arrive at the WRONG APARTMENT???

I hate to say it, but manslaughter charges should be brought, and whatever the verdict on that, her judgment is so questionable she really should not be a cop.

[heaven05]

11. execution/genocide/human and civil rights charges

not manslaughter. She should go to prison for a long, long time.

[EX500rider]

55. One person dying no matter how tragically isn't even close to "genocide"

Last edited Fri Sep 7, 2018, 10:37 PM - Edit history (1)

gen·o·cide
noun
the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation.

[heaven05]

87. well your

explanation/definition is noted, yet this gentleman is one of the millions that have been killed in the genocidal rampage of whites that started with the black diaspora: Di-as-por-a, verb, simple definition: "the dispersion of a people from their homeland" that created and enabled the white slave trade of Africans. Of course, my use of GENOCIDE is much more involved than this calling out of the CONTINUING murder by white Amerikan police officers of unarmed and innocent AA in Amerika.

And to further your definition of genocide, this is mine: the deliberate and(you forgot, I think?)'systematic' extermination of a national, racial, political or cultural group. As has been continuing in Amerika since the Slavery Era.
"to kill, putting to death, killing, the act of terminating a life".

So as far as your definition? Correct, I will give you a 'B-', yet to make a valid point research is always needed before putting an absolute analysis on paper for perusal by your peers.

You have a good one, okay???

[Me.]

102. And Lest We Forget

He had a BIG red mat in front of the door....was there such in front of her door. IMHO she was as high as a kite and hence yet another black man was killed by a police person who, once again, may not be held responsible.

[LisaM]

28. I ilve in a large apartment building and ONCE I tried to go into the wrong unit.

The door was locked, I realized it was the wrong floor, bottom line, I didn't go in, and I would have instantly known it wasn't my apartment if I had. The reason I was trying the wrong door is that our floors have different hallway wall colors, and this floor has a very, very similar color to my own floor, it was late, I made a mistake. So THAT part I can see, but that's where I part ways with this officer.

[Nitram]

29. Didn't you shoot out the windows when your key didn't work?

[33taw]

41. I lived in a large complex once and walked into the wrong apartment.

Funny, all I did was apologize and exit.

[joshcryer]

66. The door was locked and he opened it after she told him to.

It's not even a case of going inside the wrong apartment, it's a case of putting the key in a door, actively yelling out "open up!" and then killing the "intruder."

I mean there are so many red flags here.

I've put my key in the wrong door before.

[Blue_Tires]

81. She was piss drunk, perhaps?

[heaven05]

8. LAHWB, yep

I would like to see the race of the police officer. Something very strange here. How did she have a key to the victim's apartment? How did she get in to kill this man? This stinks.

[MosheFeingold]

43. Not the same thing

But in the 1970s I had a Chevy Impala, blue.

I got into a blue Chevy Impala about where I parked mine, put the key in, it started, and drove home.

Drove back to the store to a lady in tears, cops everywhere, and got arrested briefly (until they started my car with her key).

No one was shot, however.

[joshcryer]

67. She didn't, her key didn't work, she ordered him to open up.

Super messed up.

[Perseus]

10. "The officer was not hurt"????

He looked like a nice kid...damm!! this has to stop.

[malthaussen]

12. So glad the officer was not hurt.

That's what matters, after all. Apparently.

-- Mal

[Tikki]

22. Or her weapon...

I mean that poor little gun, what it’s been through and all..

Tikki

[Tiggeroshii]

61. "Murderer kills person after mistaking his house for hers"

"...murderer not hurt."

[jb5150]

14. There is more to this story ...

I'm willing to bet the police officer was involved in some way with the victim.

[beachbum bob]

15. pretty fishy story...so how is that not murder charge?

[LandOfHopeAndDreams]

16. Bacon nt

[ansible]

25. oink oink indeed

[Blue_Tires]

18. Yeah, but the cop stands for the anthem so it's all good, amirite?

[marble falls]

19. This story has not been fully told yet. There's more than a mistake at play here.

[cab67]

20. perhaps

But I cannot, for the life of me, figure out how any of them could have been on the part of the resident of the apartment, other than opening the door.

[marble falls]

70. At the time of the article police hadn't taken a statement from her and the Chief said he didn't ...

think he'd try to get one until today.

[dansolo]

92. If she thought it was her own apartment

Why would she be pounding on the door for someone to open up? Wouldn't she have expected it to be empty?

[uponit7771]

93. +1

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

21. I'm guessing this cop was fueled on alcohol.

Not drunk, mind you, since Dallas' finest wouldn't get drunk while in uniform. But, maybe just enough to fear for her life when she saw a strange man in her apartment and didn't understand why he would change all the furniture, carpet, and paint the walls.

[cstanleytech]

23. A pretty good bet but either way the shooting was unjustified and

they need to be prosecuted and fired.

[lunasun]

24. Unless you are really wasted, how do you not recognize that's not your apt? lock your doors !LWB

[left-of-center2012]

26. Waiting for those famous words ...

"The officer feared for her life" ... which cops use to justify all cop killings.

[Nitram]

30. Maybe he refused her advances.

[JustAnotherGen]

31. I would like to say its a no brainer

That she is in the wrong -

But time and again we see that a police officer is never ever EVER in the wrong.

Ever.

ETA - I hope his family sues the living shit out of her.

[christx30]

32. I see it all the time.

Guy breaks into a place, hangs pictures of his family and friends all over the walls.... pity.


This is awful. Bet she won’t face any kind of consequences for, what would be for any non cop, a 100% illegal act.

[Saviolo]

33. Update: Apparently she was on the WRONG FLOOR:

Link to tweet

#Dallas police murdered a man in his own home. They didnt even live on the same floor.
#DrugTestPolice
#BlackLivesMatter
@PhilipTKingston @VoteAdamMedrano @scottgriggsdal @Mike_Rawlings @ChiefHallDPD

[haele]

50. I've come home tired after a very long night shift while living in an apartment complex.

Made that mistake twice at around 6/7 in the morning. However, once I figured out my key wasn't working after about ten/fifteen seconds, I looked at the f*** number on the door and immediately saw my mistake.

I didn't keep trying my key. I didn't assume someone was in my apartment if the door was unlocked and I walked in, seeing furniture that wasn't mine. I looked at the number on the apartment and realized I was at the wrong door.

And I've had that happen to me a couple times living in that same apartment, people trying my door at 2 in the morning, and then going "oh shit" after a while, or drunkenly pounding on the door with that half-drunken yelling whine "<FITN>, please, let me in...".

Haele

[Blue_Tires]

75. Oh I can't wait to see the pretzels her defense attorney will twist

en route to her acquittal...

[joshcryer]

77. "Good hard worker, exhausted from a 12 hour shift."

Accolades from her fellow workers. She'll take the stand in her own defense. She'll be weary. She'll cry. She'll ask for forgiveness.

Acquitted. Just a black guy in Texas. Overworked police officer just made an honest mistake. Haven't you ever put your key in the wrong car door before?

[Blue_Tires]

80. Don't forget she had no other choice because she "FEARED FOR HER LIFE!!"

And if Jean has so much as a speeding ticket on his record, or if he fought a classmate back in elementary school, he going to be smeared as a violent criminal who got what was fucking coming to him... We all know the song-and-dance by now...

[joshcryer]

83. That guy was a saint.

He probably never had a run in with cops in his life.

[Blue_Tires]

89. Then their next step is to find a family member who isn't a saint

and smear him through that...

[uponit7771]

94. +1, not only that she lived on the first floor. There's no muscle memory in walking UP steps to

... think the wrong apartment is yours.

I can see miscounting going up or down steps but not going from first to second .... there's no miscount.

[Hav]

34. There seems to be so much wrong here

but I cannot read the story as the site is unavailable to people in Europe.
Was the apartment locked with the key inside? Why else would she need someone else to open the door to her own apartment? When you enter, how long do you need to recognize it's not your home? If you enter the wrong apartment, I'd guess it has to be one close to your home. Wouldn't you recognize someone who lives close to you?
Being off duty, did she report it first before going in there? Seems a responsible police officer would use the official steps to deal with a supposed home invasion.

At "best", it's a trigger happy and irresponsible person screwing up in the worst possible way. But I suspect this has to have been a planned murder.


Edit: After the additional info that was provided, I take back the planned murder accusation, it still sounds messed up.

[BumRushDaShow]

38. Can you see the tweet in the post above yours?

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142152696#post33

Hopefully that is a better summary.

Apparently she was also on the wrong floor and when she attempted to unlock that apartment with her key, the resident inside opened the door and she hauled off and shot him.

Edit - here is another article - https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/dallas-officer-enters-apartment-she-mistakes-her-own-fatally-shoots-n907411

[Hav]

42. Yes, I read it and wanted to edit my post but wasn't fast enough

[BumRushDaShow]

45. Okay cool!

[tblue37]

57. I don't think there is a time limit on editing on DU. nt

[Iggo]

71. You can edit any of your posts whenever you want to, fyi.

[ProfessorGAC]

39. Look At The Post By Saviolo

Right above your post. You were probably typing as that post was hitting the thread.

[MosheFeingold]

46. "Was the apartment locked with the key inside?"

I'm betting her key worked.

A lot of complexes have 20-30 key patterns that repeat, or that are so similar (so the master key works) that any of that group of keys will work if you give it a good "bump".

[bonniebgood]

40. Nothing is going to make sense with this BS story

accept the truth. another lying cop, coving up a crime. they knew each other. period.

[BumRushDaShow]

47. There is apparently some buzz going on twitter with supposed "witnesses"

hearing banging on the door and then someone yelling "Open up, open up"... or something to that effect.

[AllyCat]

44. When in doubt, shoot. That is why we have guns everywhere...

...so we can shoot! I'm sure she will get off without a hitch since she is an officer, had a weapon, and the victim was an immigrant. Just another case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. He should have been more careful to not be in his apartment when she got home.

[comradebillyboy]

48. She's being charged with manslaughter.

https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Dallas-Officer-Fatally-Shoots-Man-492675981.html

[tblue37]

58. Usually the only cops who get charged are women or minorities, and even then the

woman cop is likely to be acquitted it she is white.

[joshcryer]

65. She probably wasn't drunk then.

Texas has separate manslaughter charges for people who were intoxicated.

Average convection time for killer cops is 4 years.

She'll probably get the minimum of 2 years because she was "tired" and "worked a 12 hour shift."

[Demobrat]

49. My neighbor walked into my apartment once

He lived directly above me. Hallways are identical. He took one look at me, apologized and left. Nobody got shot.

[unblock]

52. and this is the problem with guns. they turn innocent mistakes into fatalities.

without a gun, life goes on, in many cases the incident would even be completely forgettable.

with a gun, it becomes an unforgettable tragedy.

[uponit7771]

95. +1

[Dawson Leery]

51. 50 years in a dark cell would not be enough.

[tblue37]

54. The officer was not hurt in the 10 p.m. shooting at the South Side Flats at 1210 S. Lamar St., bloc

Oh, well then.

[MrScorpio]

56. Where are those "Blue Lives Matter" motherfuckers now?

[Blue_Tires]

82. They'll surface soon enough...

I'm calling it right now -- If this cop is young and even halfway attractive, she'll get acquitted no matter what the evidence shows...

[truthisfreedom]

63. I ended up on the wrong floor once, following someone out of an elevator

while my mind was on autopilot. I struggled with trying to get my key to work in my lock for at least a minute before I realized my mistake. IF it had been a handle lock only and IF my key had gone in and IF the door was unlocked, I might have accidentally entered the apartment after turning the door handle using the key. That’s a lot of ifs.

This is a horrible tragedy.

[pecosbob]

68. Manslaughter or negligent homicide...

[ROB-ROX]

78. CRIMINAL MURDER

Shooting a defenseless person is criminal murder. Why is this criminal not in jail facing charges of MURDER?? What is wrong with JUSTICE in this THIRD world STATE?? IT LOOKS LIKE TWO STANDARDS OF JUSTICE WHERE A PERSON WITH A BADGE CAN KILL AT WILL...........

[Le Grand Pronounceur]

79. Give her a blood test ASAP

Either she was high, or she doesn't belong on any damn police force!

[xor]

84. I really hope they investigate this, because that sounds pretty suspicious to me.

[Marrah_Goodman]

85. Dallas officer murders man after mistaking his apartment for her own, police say

There, fixed it.

[Judi Lynn]

86. Dallas police seeking warrant for off-duty officer that killed a man in wrong apartment

[Cal Carpenter]

88. The officer's name has *STILL NOT BEEN RELEASED*

I looked at news articles, sorted by most recent, and they still say she has 'not been identified'.

Seems sorta fucked up to me.

[Sancho]

91. The jury probably won't convict her...

some of them will think it's accidental or something.

Maybe the family will sue her for wrongful death in a civil suit.

[Blue_Tires]

98. The attorneys have told her what to say:

Link to tweet

[neohippie]

99. updated news story

https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/10/us/dallas-police-officer-amber-guyger-arrest/index.html

A Dallas police officer stands charged with manslaughter in the fatal shooting of a man she mistakenly thought was in her apartment, but a prosecutor would not rule out a more serious charge Monday.

"The grand jury will be that entity that will make the final decision in terms of the charge or charges that will come out of this case," Dallas County District Attorney Faith Johnson told reporters. "We prepare to present a thorough case to the grand jury of Dallas County, so that the right decision can be made in this case."
How everyday racial profiling hurts everyone
Amber Guyger, who is white, was off-duty when she shot Botham Shem Jean, a black man, in his apartment, police said Thursday. Guyger told police she thought she was entering her own apartment not realizing she was on the wrong floor. Upon encountering Jean, she thought her home was being burglarized and opened fire, according to police.
Botham, a 26-year-old native of St. Lucia, was unarmed. He died at a hospital.

Officer says she thought her apartment was being burglarized so she opened fire.

I didn't think that there is a death penalty for burglary, what made this officer feel justified that her life was in danger, or does she think that she has a right to execute someone for theft?