Dallas officer who killed man in home she thought was hers also shot suspect in 2017


The off-duty Dallas police officer who fatally shot a neighbour after mistaking his home for her own also fired her weapon and wounded a man in 2017, court documents have revealed.

Police in Texas named Amber Guyger as the white officer who shot and killed 26-year-old black man Botham Jean on Thursday night.

Ms Guyger claimed she entered the wrong apartment at the South Side Flats when she returned to the building in uniform at the end of her shift.

She called police dispatch to report she had shot a man inside the apartment. Mr Jean died later at a hospital.

Dallas police initially said they would seek her arrest for manslaughter, but then handed the case over to the Texas Rangers to “eliminate the appearance of any potential bias”.

The state law enforcement agency has asked for more time to probe the police shooting.

An affidavit from a case a year ago shows Ms Guyger shot another man while on duty in Dallas on 12 May last year.

When suspect Uvaldo Perez got out of a car and became combative, Ms Guyger fired her Taser at Mr Perez, who wrested away the Taser.

Ms Guyger then pulled out her gun and fired, wounding Mr Perez in the abdomen. She was not charged with any offence.

A lawyer for Jean’s family, Lee Merritt, urged the authorities to issue an arrest warrant for Ms Guyger. He said his “foremost priority will be to ensure justice is served for this family”.

On Saturday, two days after Mr Jean’s death, friends and family gathered at a prayer vigil at Dallas West Church of Christ to remember him.

Botham Jean grew up on the Caribbean island of St Lucia. He attended Harding University in Arkansas before joining accounting and consulting firm PwC in Dallas.

Family and friends described him as a devout Christian and a talented singer.

Mr Jean’s mother has asked whether race was a factor in the shooting. “If it was a white man would it have been different? Would she have reacted differently?”

Additional reporting by Associated Press