September 9, 2018

Dallas Cop Shot and Killed Black Man in His Own Home After Mistaking It for Hers

Now the Texas Rangers have stepped in to investigate.

Police car

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The Dallas Police Department is investigating a bizarre shooting in which an off-duty police officer shot and killed a man in his own home after allegedly mistaking it for hers. The officer, identified as Amber Guyger, has been placed on administrative leave.

Guyger, 30, walked into an apartment in downtown Dallas after her shift ended on Thursday and saw Botham Shem Jean, 26. She fired her weapon. She then dialed 911 and Jean was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he died.

Guyger has been on the Dallas police force for five years. She was involved in 2017 shooting of a suspect who she said tried to remove her taser during a struggle. On Saturday, during a criminal justice panel with Mayor Mike Rawlings, Dallas Police Chief Renee Hall said that no arrest warrant has been issued for Guyger because the Texas Rangers have asked her department to wait so they can investigate the incident further.

“We are totally committed to getting to the bottom of this situation,” Hall said during the panel, which was livestreamed on Facebook. Hall then explained that the department was going through the process of obtaining a warrant for Guyger’s arrest but turned the investigation over to the Texas Rangers. “We truly want to be transparent,” Hall said. “We have turned this investigation over to ensure total transparency in our operations.”

The Texas Ranger Division is a law enforcement agency with statewide jurisdiction in Texas.

Dallas is still reeling from the fatal shooting of five police officers in 2016 by a gunman who bought an AK-47 on Facebook and was later killed by a remote control bomb—the first of its kind ever used by law enforcement.

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