Botham Jean family sues complex

Faulty door lock said to contribute to off-duty officer’s shooting

DALLAS — The family of a man fatally shot by an off-duty Dallas police officer who said she mistook his apartment for hers is suing the complex where he was killed, saying his door lock didn’t work properly.

The parents and sister of Botham Jean filed the lawsuit Tuesday in Dallas County district court. The lawsuit came just ahead of the two-year anniversary of the death of the 26-year-old Black man, a certified public accountant who had graduated from Harding University in Searcy.

Jean was fatally shot Sept. 6, 2018, by officer Amber Guyger, who testified that she thought he was an intruder. Guyger, who is white, was fired and charged with murder. She was convicted last year and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

A lawyer for the company that owns South Side Flats said it has not yet been served with the suit and could not comment on its claims.

“All of us associated with the South Side Flats community continue to express our deepest sympathies to the Jean family for their indescribable loss,” Erin Ankin, general counsel for property managemant company Waterton, said in an emailed statement.

The lawsuit said there were multiple incidents at the complex where the doors and locking mechanisms didn’t operate on a consistent basis. The lawsuit says that when Guyger arrived at his door — one floor above Guyger’s — his door either hadn’t closed as it was designed to do or her key fob allowed her to enter an apartment that wasn’t hers.

The lawsuit also said the design of the building led to people parking on the wrong floor or entering the wrong apartment by mistake.

In December, a federal judge ruled that the city of Dallas was not liable for Guyger’s off-duty shooting, dismissing the city from a lawsuit brought by Jean’s family.