Did dereliction of duty or confusion lead officer Amber Guyger to kill unarmed man?
Dallas County prosecutors argued Monday that if you are a police officer, you are never off duty.
A former police officer accused of shooting an unarmed man in his own apartment in Dallas abandoned her training and that is what led to a horrific tragedy, prosecutors told the jury on the first day of the trial.
Amber Guyger is charged with murder in the death of Botham Shem Jean, 26, who she fatally shot Sept. 6, 2018, in Dallas. Guyger was fired from the Dallas police force after the shooting.
Guyger, who was in uniform but off duty at the time of the shooting, has said that she mistook Jean’s apartment for her own and thought he was an intruder.
“She should have been governed by what she’d been taught,” Jason Hermus, Dallas County prosecutor, said.
Guyger’s attorneys said that prosecutors are trying to hold the former police officer up to an unreasonable standard. The policies that govern police officers facing intruders, burglars and robbers, are made for officers responding to emergencies who can plan arrest strategies en route to a call, the defense argued.
Those policies are not made for officers who encounter an intruder inside their home after a long day, they said.
A prosecutor told jurors that Guyger was careless and distracted when she entered her neighbor’s apartment and fatally shot him.
Hermus called Jean “a wonderful, decent, kind man.”
Hermus said that Guyger seemed in good condition before she started a text conversation with her partner and former love interest, Martin Rivera. After a long day supporting SWAT officers with the arrest of a violent group of robbers, Guyger was fine.
But after exchanging a series of text messages with her partner, Guyger seemed off kilter, missing a multitude of clues that might have caused her to stop before entering Jean’s apartment, Hermus said.
Hermus told the jury that Jean was sitting in his living room, watching football in his T-shirt and shorts and eating ice cream when Guyger walked inside.
Instead of shooting when she walked inside, Guyger could have retreated or called for backup, Hermus said.
“The noise from the door must have scared him to death,” Hermus said. “One bullet goes past him. The other goes into his chest, into his heart.”
Hermus said there is no evidence that Jean ever posed a threat to Guyger.
“She, while Bo is bleeding to death, goes into damage control,” Hermus said. “While she’s on the phone with 911, she’s sending text messages to her partner.”
A confusing place
Guyger’s attorney Robert Rogers said during his opening statements that dozens of people living at the apartment complex reported regularly parking on the wrong floor or attempting to enter the wrong apartment.
Rogers said the floors of the parking garage were not clearly marked so it was understandable when Guyger, tired from a long shift, in September 2018 pushed open a door and believed an intruder was inside.
The strikeplate on Jean’s door prevents it from closing correctly, Rogers said. Jean is wondering why this woman is in his apartment and Guyger pulls her gun, thinking she is in danger, Rogers said.
Guyger “was on autopilot,” Rogers said of her entrance to Jean’s apartment. “She had tunnel vision.”
Rogers described Southside Flats as a confusing place, with floors and apartments not clearly marked. Also Guyger, using her experience as a police officer, discovered her relatively new home was located in a high crime area, Rogers said.
Guyger expects the man to stop but he doesn’t, Rogers said. Rogers said Guyger’s thinking: “My God, there’s a man inside my apartment. I’m holding a gun and he’s yelling at me. He must want to kill me because I caught him breaking into my apartment.”
When Guyger realizes what she has done, she is horrified, Rogers said.
“She’s going back and forth from cop to sheer panic,” Rogers said.
Guyger gravitated to Rivera because of his experience, their proximity as partners and the long hours they spent working together, Rogers explained. Prosecutors argued provocative texts between the two were a precursor to a meeting later that night. Rivera testified Monday that the two liked to flirt with one another.
But the idea that Guyger and Rivera were planning a late-night rendezvous is “rank speculation,” Rogers said. Guyger was looking for more stability and her sexual relationship with Rivera was waning, Rogers said.
After shooting Jean, while speaking to the police dispatcher, Guyger sent two texts to Rivera, Hermus said.
The first said that she needed him and the second said that she had messed up.
“When I saw those text messages, I knew that something bad had happened,” Rivera testified.
The shooting, 911 call recording
Jean was inside his apartment preparing to watch football when, according to court documents, Guyger entered his apartment after her shift with the Dallas Police Department. Guyger has told investigators that she believed she had entered her own apartment and Jean was an intruder. She was still wearing her uniform, but not a body camera. She shot him as she stood by the door, according to reports.
During the almost six-minute phone call she made to 911, Guyger said she thought she was in her apartment at least 19 times, according to an audio recording.
“Hi, this is an off-duty officer. Umm, can I get, I need to get EMS,” Guyger said to the operator.
“Do you need police as well or just EMS?” she was asked.
Guyger said yes and gave the operator an address. Her apartment was directly below Jean’s.
“I’m an off-duty officer,” Guyger told the operator. “I thought I was in my apartment and I shot a guy thinking he was, thinking it was my apartment.”
The operator told Guyger that help was on the way and she responded, “I know but I’m, I’m going to lose my job. I thought it was my apartment.”
Guyger can then be heard talking to Jean.
“Hey bud. Hey bud. Hey bud. Come on. Oh [expletive]. I thought it was my apartment,” and then later, “Oh my God. I’m done. I didn’t mean to. I didn’t mean to. I didn’t mean to. I’m sorry. Hey bud.”
She becomes more frantic and panicked and continued to repeat that she thought she was in her apartment. Asked what the gate code was to get inside, Guyger said she didn’t know.
The apartment complex, Southside Flats, in the 1200 block of South Lamar Street, is blocks away from Dallas police headquarters. Residents park on the same floor as their apartment.
Guyger was originally charged with manslaughter a few days after Jean was shot. She was indicted by a Dallas County Grand Jury in November on a murder charge.
Alissa Finley, Jean’s older sister, said her brother was excited about his approaching birthday. They were close and spoke almost every day, Finley testified Monday.
Jean used the marijuana investigators found in his apartment to counteract symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, Finley said. Jean disliked the side effects from the Adderall doctors prescribed for the condition, Finley said.
“I still call him sometimes, even now,” Finley said. “Being here in Dallas without him is hard, knowing that he’s not here.”
The jury
In the weeks leading up to the trial, the defense had sought to have it moved out of Dallas County, saying they didn’t believe Guyger could receive a fair trial in Dallas. But on Sept. 13, after questioning a pool of hundreds of potential jurors, attorneys were able to agree on a panel of 12 jurors and four alternates and the judge ordered that the trial will remain in Dallas.
The demographics of the jury will be closely watched in a case that has drawn national attention. The circumstances of the shooting sparked outrage and critics, including Jean’s family, have questioned why Guyger was not taken into custody immediately after the shooting and whether race played a factor in her decision to use deadly force. Jean was black and Guyger is white.
No official statement has been made on the demographics of the jury, but seven of the 16 jurors and alternates appear to be black or African-American. Twelve are women and four are men.
The jury will decide whether 31-year-old Guyger committed murder, a lesser offense such as manslaughter or criminally negligent homicide, or no crime at all.
Jurors will be sequestered during the trial.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. This story also includes information from the Star-Telegram’s archives.
This story was originally published September 23, 2019 at 12:31 PM.
