Posted on 09/09/2018 8:47:09 PM PDT by CaptainK
The Dallas police officer who killed 26-year-old Botham Jean in his own apartment got inside because the door wasn’t locked, a law enforcement official said Sunday.
Officer Amber Guyger had just ended a 15-hour shift when she parked on the wrong level of the South Side Flats garage— the fourth floor instead of the third, where she lived, according to the official who has direct knowledge of the case but is not authorized to discuss it publicly.
Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings also said Sunday that Guyger parked on the wrong floor.
She went to the door she thought was hers but was one floor too high. The four floors of the South Side Flats in the Cedars look the same, with concrete floors and tan doors. A light fixture to the side of each door displays the apartment number.
Guyger, 30, was arrested Sunday on a manslaughter charge and was booked into the Kaufman County Jail. The Texas Rangers are investigating the case at the request of Dallas Police Chief U. Renee Hall. In the last year, juries have sentenced two police officers in Dallas County to prison time after convicting them of murder.
The night of the shooting, Guyger didn’t notice that Jean's door had a red doormat in front of it, the official said. Her entrance didn’t have one.
(Excerpt) Read more at dallasnews.com ...
You remind me of a funny story from WW2 concerning SS officer Reinhard "Hangman" Heydrich.
Heydrich's recruitment into the Nazi government had been dicey, due to rumors he had Jewish ancestry. The dispute went to the top. After a long private meeting with Heydrich, the Fuehrer decided in Heydrich's favor, declaring him "a highly gifted but also very dangerous man, whose gifts the movement had to retain...extremely useful; for he would eternally be grateful to us that we had kept him and not expelled him and would obey blindly."
One early morning, after getting drunk on the town, Heydrich's ethnic insecurity destroyed a perfectly good mirror. Entering his apartment, he turned on the lights, saw his reflection in the mirror, and, shouting "Dirty Jew!", fired two shots, shattering the mirror.
Ethanol does indeed cloud judgement.
That is what I believe. She was fumbling with the lock trying to get in and the resident heard the noise and opened the door. She shot him thinking he was a thug. The idiot should get a minimum 20 years imo.
She's more FBI material.
What was Officer Guyger’s BAC?
GUILTY!
Whatda think, Laz?
Yep. Seventh floor at HQ.
She can be the Lisa Page to some new Peter Strzok. Gotta maintain the American Gestapo!
I get the sense that the spin machine is trying to sow confusion about three hours, here. 12 hour shift? Makes sense. 15 hour shift? Doesn’t make sense. Three hours. So, what was this woman doing for those three hours? The stupidity of the shooting implies impairment. Was she driving a police car while impaired? Was she even administered a sobriety test? Account for her whereabouts, it sounds as if it’s shall we say interesting.
First it was 12, now 15. Then it was she walked into the wrong apartment. My friend said the doors lock automatically. The story went from walked in, to tried the key, then knocked on what was supposedly her own apartment door, to fumbled with the lock, and he opened the door, back to it being unlocked. The whole story stinks of BS. If I was guessing, she was either drunk, or had her head completely up her butt on her cellphone. He heard her fumbling around, opened the door, and she shot him.
Yup, she’s guilty alright. With a face like that, she can do anything. Just saying.
15-12=3
12/2=6
3 hours would be 1/4th or .25 of a Shift
The original report was a 12 hour shift.
I still have not heard Anything about the Blood Draw results on her.
If she is cleared of Drug/Alcohol use via the Blood Draw done I for one will not trust the Chain of Custody on the sample/results. It’s been 3 days since the Blood Draw and not a word on the results. They can have results in a few minutes, it’s done all the time in ER for unconscious people that may have OD’d on drugs or alcohol. So this alone tells Me she was either on something, drinking OR we have the start of a Coverup...
I’ll bet that a Chain of Custody on a Water System BacT Test sample has a better CoC than her blood test did.
And I will not believe that she was “overtired” from a 12 hour shift she just came off of. I’ve worked many 12 hour shifts for years including Doubles- alone at Water Treatment Plants treating 30+ Million Gallons a Day
What time of the day/night did the shooting take place, anyone know?
Bartleby.
IIRC it was around 19:30 or 20:00 (7;30 - 8;00) local CST.
I prefer not to?
This is not that complicated. It sounds like she parked on the wrong level and went to the wrong apt and entered. The real issue is why as a police officer she shot an unarmed burglary suspect? I doubt tbat is dept policy.
You think cheap apartments have fancy electronic locks with key fobs? Think again.
She needs to be prosecuted for negligent homicide (the laws sometime constrain opinion - which can also be a good thing) and released from duty as a cop ..... she’s too stupid and unpredictable to have a gun as one of her regular tools.
Depends.
I have read accounts were a shift will get extended if the officer has arrest-related paperwork that needs to be completed. And there are also instances (and I’ve done it myself) when back-to-back shifts are pulled to change a three watch assignment schedule. Usually it’s a day watch that takes the evening shift (total 16 hours) before being off for 16 hours and coming back for the evening shift.
Then there is the question of how long the officer had been up BEFORE pulling the long shift (for whatever reason).
So what are we looking at: 17-18 hours total?
That’s a long work day but not necessarily a long day. Actually, it’s my ordinary day since I rarely sleep more than 6 hours.
So it’s very early morning, you’re in uniform, tired, mistakenly outside the wrong door rattling the door and perhaps talking loudly (maybe using foul language) about why this *&@#$?!! key FOB isn’t working (again?). Apartment occupant, being a light sleeper, hears a commotion out at the front door, comes out of the master bedroom to the door and looks through the peephole. He sees an officer in uniform, and, wishing to be helpful, unlocks and opens the door, surprising the officer. It is not good ever to surprise an LEO. Doubly so when they think they are safe at their front door and have let their guard down.
He probably didn’t even get the “May” of “May I help you, officer?” out of his mouth before she shot him. And two hits in the chest from two feet away are not difficult.
Manslaughter
The unjustifiable, inexcusable, and intentional killing of a human being without deliberation, premeditation, and malice. The unlawful killing of a human being without any deliberation, which may be involuntary, in the commission of a lawful act without due caution and circumspection.
https://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/manslaughter
So I guess the lesson to be learned is:
If you are a tired LEO who thinks they are at their own front door, don’t shoot reflexively when surprised (despite hours and hours of training in simulation and live firing) without first being ABSOLUTELY SURE you are at your own front door.
The appropriate response would have been: “Am I at the right apartment? Or, more suspiciously, “What are you doing in my apartment?” Or (Fill in the blank. But in doing so, remember to factor in “you are really surprised” and “your guard is down” into your response.)
Okay. For those who cannot tell it without the label:
</ sarcasm>
BTW, I am NOT defending the LEO. All the above is meant to do is pose a plausible scenario for the event without going down the “something else is going on” rabbit hole. It also is meant to point out that the focus on nearly reflexive, “muscle memory”-level, combat style shooting practice may not be serving LEOs as well as it could.
The scenario posed works even better if you surprise the LEO inside “THEIR” dark apartment after entry.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.