Dallas officer arrested on manslaughter charge

DALLAS — A white Dallas police officer was arrested Sunday on a manslaughter charge in the offduty shooting of a black man who was her neighbor, Texas authorities said.

Officer Amber Guyger was booked into the Kaufman County Jail, the Texas Department of Public Safety said in a news release. The department said the investigation is ongoing and that no additional information was available.

A jail employee said Guyger was released on bond.

Guyger fatally shot 26-year-old Botham Jean on Thursday at Jean’s apartment. Lawyers for Jean’s family had been calling for Guyger’s arrest, saying the fact that she had remained free days after the shooting showed she was receiving favorable treatment. They held a news conference Sunday night, shortly before the arrest was announced, making another plea for the officer to be taken into custody and saying their team had presented new evidence — a witness and video footage — to prosecutors. They didn’t provide details.

Guyger, 30, is a four-year veteran of the police force. The Dallas Police Department released her name Saturday night.

Police Chief U. Renee Hall said the day after the shooting that her department was seeking manslaughter charges against Guyger. But she said Saturday that the Texas Rangers, who have taken over the investigation, asked her department to hold off because they had learned new information and wanted to investigate further before a warrant was issued.

Jean’s family has also hired attorney Benjamin Crump, who is known for representing the families of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown.

According to police, Guyger shot and killed Jean after returning in uniform to the South Side Flats, where they both had apartments, following her shift. She reported the shooting to dispatchers, and she told officers who responded that she had mistaken Jean’s apartment for her own.