A police officer fatally shot a black man in his own home after she entered the flat and thought it was hers, it is claimed.
Officer Amber Guyger, who was off-duty, could be charged with manslaughter in the death of 26-year-old accountant Botham Jean.
Guyger, 30, was returning home from a 12-hour shift – in uniform and armed with her service handgun – when she mistook Mr Jean’s apartment for her own, police in Dallas, Texas, said.
Thursday night’s shooting happened about 18 months after she shot a man in the abdomen after he disarmed her Taser during a struggle.
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Video recorded by a neighbour in the aftermath shows a chaotic scene, with Guyger seen crying and pacing as she speaks on a mobile phone and sirens wail in the distance.
Later, paramedics are seen trying to revive Mr Jean as they wheel him out of the flat on a stretcher while surrounded by police officers.
Guyger, a Dallas police officer for four years, told officers responding to the shooting that she entered the man’s apartment believing that it was her own, a police statement said.
She had just moved into the building about a month ago, it was reported.
She is being independently investigated by the Texas Rangers, who have asked police to hold off on a planned manslaughter arrest warrant until the probe is carried out, said police Chief Renee Hall.
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As part of the investigation, police took a blood sample from Guyger to test it for alcohol and drugs.
Guyger has been placed on administrative leave.
In May 2017, she shot a man named Uvaldo Perez, who took her Taser during a struggle. She was not charged following that incident, the Dallas Morning News reported.
Perez, 47, was later jailed for two years after admitting to taking the weapon, possessing drugs and violating his parole conditions.
Police at the scene of the shooting in Dallas, Texas, on Thursday night (Image: NBC)
He has called on authorities to issue a warrant for Guyger’s arrest, telling reports that there is “enough evidence” to charge her with manslaughter.
He suggested a charge would have come sooner if Guyger wasn’t a police officer.
The lawyer added: “This family is frustrated. This family is upset. This family is grieving that that has not happened yet.
“We believe that that has not happened yet is differential treatment for law enforcement officers.”
Mr Merritt said it is believed that Mr Jean and Guyger did not know each other.
Mr Jean, an accountant who worked in risk assurance with PricewaterhouseCoopers, was originally from the Caribbean island of St Lucia.
His mum, Allie Jean, has questioned how the incident could have happened and suggested he might still be alive if he were white.
She told NBC News: “Somebody has to be crazy not to realise that they walked into the wrong apartment. He’s a bachelor. Things are different inside.
“And if you try your key and it doesn’t work, that should make you realise you’re at the wrong apartment. Every door for each apartment is also numbered.”
The devastated mum said she wants to forgive the officer, but added: “She took away my heart, she took away my soul, she took away everything. He didn’t deserve to die like that.”
She told KXAS-TV: “If it was a white man would it have been different? Would she have reacted differently?”
She said her son had been a top student at Harding University, a private Christian school in Arkansas, before he became an accountant.
He was active in his local church, serving as a song leader, she added.
At university, he often led worship services on campus.
Guyger, who called 911 to report the shooting, “is devastated” following the young man’s death, an unnamed colleague told the Dallas Morning News.
The officer added: “She is so, so sorry for this family.”
Chief Hall said the force is “totally committed to getting to the bottom of this situation”, and she urged the public to have trust in her officers.
Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings said: “For anyone that questions whether we’re going to get to the truth of this, there should be no doubters. We will find out exactly what happened.”
Residents of the upscale South Side Flats apartment complex were left shaken by the incident.
Richard Healy Nelson told Fox News: “(It’s) super scary because the police are supposed to protect you and then they come home and, you know, you’re just hanging out in your own house and then they come home thinking they’re home or whatever.”
