Dallas officer arrested in fatal shooting of black man inside his home

DALLAS >> A white Dallas police officer was arrested Sunday on a manslaughter warrant in the shooting of a black man at his home, Texas authorities said.

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

The 30-year-old Guyger fatally shot 26-year-old Botham Jean on Thursday. 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.

S. Lee Merritt, who is representing the family of 26-year-old Botham Jean, said Saturday that the family isn’t calling on the authorities to jump to conclusions or to deny Officer Amber Guyger her right to due process. But Merritt, flanked by members of the family and Mothers Against Police Brutality, said they want Guyger “to be treated like every other citizen, and where there is evidence that they’ve committed a crime, that there’s a warrant to be issued and an arrest to be made.”

Guyger is a four-year veteran of the police force. The Dallas Police Department released her name Saturday night — two nights after she shot and killed Jean.

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.