Dallas Police Officer Charged in Fatal Shooting of Unarmed Neighbor

A Dallas police officer who fatally shot a man in his apartment after mistaking it for her own was arrested Sunday on a manslaughter charge, the Texas Rangers said. Police said Thursday, Amber Guyger, who is white, was off-duty when she shot Botham Shem Jean, a black man.

The 26-year-old native of St. Lucia was unarmed and later died at a hospital. On Sunday evening, Guyger was released from the Kaufman County Jail after posting a $300,000 bond.

The fatal shooting happened Thursday night at the South Side Flats in Dallas, where both Jean and Guyger lived. According to CNN, Dallas Police Chief Ulysha Renee Hall said Thursday “A female Dallas police officer returned to what she believed to be her apartment after her shift ended — she was still in uniform when she encountered Mr. Jean inside the apartment.”

The police chief also said it’s unclear what “the interaction was between her and the victim. Then at some point she fired her weapon striking the victim.” The officer called 911 and officers “responded in about four minutes,” Hall said. Guyger, 30, is a four-year veteran of the department, assigned to the Southeast Patrol Division.

The investigation into the recent shooting has been handed over to the Texas Rangers, the state law enforcement agency, to “eliminate the appearance of any potential bias,” the police department said in a statement Saturday. “At the very early stages of this investigation — initial indications were that they were what we consider circumstances of an officer-involved shooting,” Hall said. “However, as we continued this investigation it became clear that we were dealing with what appears to be a much different and very unique situation.”