Dallas Police Officer Murders Black Man in His Home
On Thursday, September 6, just before 10:00 at night, Botham Shem Jean was relaxing at home, possibly already in his bed for the night, when he heard someone attempting to open his locked apartment door. Jean went to his door and opened it more than likely in an attempt to confront the intruder.
The intruder in this case turned out to be Dallas Police Officer Amber Guyger. Guyger, who had just gotten off of work claims she thought she was entering her own apartment. Jeans apartment is directly above Guyger’s apartment. According to Guyger the apartment was dark and all she saw was a large shape. Supposedly she called out commands and when the person didn’t respond she shot him.
It didn’t take long for her story to start changing. Guyger originally gave a statement saying she couldn’t get her key to work. She even claims to have put some items on the ground while she tried to get the key to work. The story has now morphed to the door being slightly open and that when she went to insert the key it swung open.
This seems like an important distinction to me. If she can get away with claiming the door was open and he was further into the apartment then the possibility of it being too dark to see who it was gets a little more credible. She can say she didn’t even know it was a black man and didn’t overreact based on race. But if he came and threw open the door then the lights from the well-lit hallway would have shown her that it was a black man.
We all know she is going to try to tell the story to show her in the best light possible but this is how we see it. Guyger went to the wrong apartment. Guyger tried to get into an apartment that wasn’t her own. Guyger more than likely overreacted because the man who confronted her was black. Guyger chose to immediately resort to deadly force rather than only the amount of force needed. And the wagons started circling. The police department has appeared to kick into protect our own mode.
After Guyger’s arrest she posted bond and was then allowed to sneak out a back door to avoid having to face the press. The police department issued a search warrant for Jean’s apartment where they claim to have found a small amount of marijuana. The release of this information is a classic maneuver to discredit the victim. And now Guyger has hired a Public Relations firm to try to polish her reputation.
Who is going to stand for Botham Shem Jean now that he can’t stand for himself?