Dallas mother wonders if race factored into son’s shooting
DALLAS (AP) — The mother of a black man who was gunned down at his home by a white Dallas police officer who said she mistook his apartment for her own suggested that her son might still be alive if he were white.
Allison Jean, the mother of 26-year-old Botham Jean, wondered whether race was a factor when the officer shot and killed her son after she returned home in uniform from her shift on Thursday night.
“I didn’t know she was white until now. If it was a white man would it have been different? Would she have reacted differently?” Jean said Friday in footage broadcast by Dallas’ NBC affiliate, KXAS.
Authorities have said the officer is white, but haven’t released her name or other details about her.
Dallas’ police chief, U. Renee Hall, said Friday that her department was seeking to charge the officer with manslaughter. But she said Saturday during a criminal justice panel livestreamed on Facebook that the Texas Rangers, who took over the case, asked her department to hold off issuing an arrest warrant because they needed more time to look into information the officer provided during an interview with investigators.
“The ball is in their court,” Hall said. She acknowledged that many questions remain about the shooting and asked the public to give investigators enough time to get to the answers.
A lawyer for Jean’s family said Saturday after a prayer vigil at a Dallas church that an arrest warrant should be issued for the officer.
“This family is frustrated. This family is upset,” said attorney Lee Merritt. “This family is grieving that that has not happened yet,” he said of the wait for investigators to act.
Dozens of people including his mother attended the vigil at the Dallas West Church of Christ.
The Department of Public Safety, which oversees the Texas Rangers, didn’t immediately reply to a Saturday phone message seeking comment about the investigation.
Hall said Friday that the officer’s blood was drawn to be tested for drugs and alcohol.