US police officer charged with manslaughter of neighbour she mistook for intruder

A Dallas police officer was arrested Sunday, three days after she shot and killed a neighbour in his apartment, claiming she mistook the unit for her own and the man for an intruder, the authorities said.

The officer, Amber Guyger (30) was charged with manslaughter and booked into the Kaufman County jail. She was freed on $300,000 (€259,317) bail Sunday night. Her arrest followed days of rising tensions in the community, accusations of preferential treatment for the police and questions about what role race may have played in a deadly encounter between a white police officer in uniform and a black man startled in his own home.

Ms Guyger went home from work in her police uniform late Thursday night and tried to enter the apartment, where she encountered and shot Botham Shem Jean, the police said. Mr Jean (26) was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Ms Guyger was placed on administrative leave but was not immediately arrested, and the Dallas police department handed the investigation over to the Texas Rangers, the state's top law enforcement agency. The Texas Rangers announced the arrest Sunday night but declined to provide details about the case.

A lawyer for Ms Guyger could not be reached for comment Sunday. Lee Merritt, a lawyer for Mr Jean’s family, said in an interview late Sunday that Guyger’s arrest was a “step in the right direction.” But he questioned why the authorities had waited, saying, “We don’t want it lost on anyone that, had this been a regular citizen, she would have never left the crime scene.”

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It was unclear how Ms Guyger may have mistaken the apartment for her own, or what interaction she had with Mr Jean just before the shooting. In an interview with CNN on Sunday, Mayor Mike Rawlings of Dallas called the case “bizarre” and “confusing to all of us.”

He said that Ms Guyger apparently parked her car on the wrong floor of the building’s parking lot and then walked to the apartment. “We don’t know how she got into that door,” he said. “We have to get to the bottom of this for everybody.”

‘What was she doing?’

Ben Crump, another lawyer for the family, said that Mr Jean had been unarmed when Ms Guyger arrived and shot him in the chest. “You know, we’re still dealing in an America where black people are being killed in some of the most arbitrary ways: Driving while black, walking while black, and now, we have to add living while black,” he said Sunday at a news conference.

Mr Jean, he said, "went to his grave never knowing why the police came through his door and shot him." Ms Guyger has been a member of the Dallas police department for four years. She was involved in a shooting last year, when she shot and injured a suspect after he grabbed a police taser during a confrontation. She was not indicted in that episode, The Dallas Morning News reported.

On Thursday night, after working a full shift, she returned home to her apartment complex, South Side Flats, the police said. The complex is less than a quarter-mile from the Dallas police department headquarters. Ms Guyger called 911 at about 10 pm to report the shooting. Alyssa Kinsey (29) who lives next door to Mr Jean’s apartment, said she was sitting with her back to the tenants’ shared wall when she heard a gunshot, followed by a commotion. She said she ran to her door to listen and heard a female voice calling 911.

Staring through her peephole, Ms Kinsey said she saw a police officer pacing and heard her “hyperventilating.” To get to Mr Jean’s apartment, Ms Guyger would have had to walk past 15 to 20 apartments, many of which have distinct wreaths, doormats and trash cans, Ms Kinsey said.

Mr Jean, for instance, had a red doormat outside his apartment. “It doesn’t look the same,” she said. “So my main question is: What was she doing?” Merritt, the lawyer, said that the officer lived in a unit below Mr Jean, who had received noise complaints from a downstairs neighbour. He said the apartment complex uses electronic keys, which blink red when used incorrectly. Ms Guyger’s key was found in the doorway of Mr Jean’s apartment, he said.

Mr Jean was born in the Caribbean and later moved to the United States, where he graduated in 2016 from Harding University in Arkansas. He then moved to Dallas, where he worked for the accounting firm PwC. He was from a prominent family in St Lucia, his home country. Mr Rawlings said he planned to meet with the prime minister of St Lucia this week. At the apartment complex, people had left flowers, a balloon and photos near Mr Jean's door, Ms Kinsey said. She said that the lights in his apartment were still on, his patio furniture still outside. "This is the last person I ever thought this would happen to, and this is the last place," Ms Kinsey said. "It's so secure here. The police department is a block away." –New York Times