BREAKING NEWS: White cop Amber Guyger is found GUILTY of murder after she shot dead her black neighbor in his apartment
White Dallas police officer Amber Guyger has been found guilty of murder after she shot dead her black unarmed neighbor in his own apartment.
A jury reached the unanimous verdict in the high-profile trial for the killing of Botham Jean after six days of witness testimony but just a handful of hours of deliberation.
Guyger, 31, was on trial for shooting dead 26-year-old Botham Jean in his own apartment in September last year when she was off-duty from the Dallas Police Department.
The murder charge brings a prison sentence of between five and 99 years.
White cop Amber Guyger, 31, has been found guilty of murder after she shot dead her black 26-year-old neighbor, Botham Jean, in his Dallas apartment in September last year
Guyger, a four-year veteran with Dallas Police, was off duty but still in uniform when she fatally shot Jean in his home on the evening of September 6, 2018.
She told investigators that after a 13.5 hour shift she parked on the fourth floor of her apartment complex’s garage – rather than the third floor where she lived – and found the apartment’s door ajar.
Believing she was at her own apartment and seeing a silhouette of a figure who didn’t respond to verbal commands, Guyger said she fired two shots at Jean that killed him.
Prosecutors argued during the trial that Guyger should have noticed she was on the wrong floor, while her defense attorneys said she fired in self-defense based on the belief that Jean was a burglar.