A Dallas police officer who shot her neighbor after allegedly mistaking his home for her own said he ignored her “verbal commands” before she fired at him, authorities said.
David Armstrong of the Texas Rangers, an agency with statewide jurisdiction that has been called in to investigate the case, said Officer Amber Guyger told officials she inserted her key into the door of her neighbor's home and it opened because it was slightly cracked.
Guyger told officials the apartment was pitch black and she thought a burglar was in her home when she noticed someone moving in the dark, Armstrong wrote in an arrest affidavit released Monday.
Guyger told police that after 26-year-old Botham Jean allegedly ignored her commands, she fired her gun twice, hitting him once in the torso, the affidavit said.
She then called 911 and when she stepped outside the apartment to do so she realized it wasn’t her home, Guyger told police.
Jean was transported to a local hospital, where he later died.
The floor plans of the two apartments are “identical” or “extremely similar,” Armstrong wrote in the affidavit.
Guyger was charged Sunday with manslaughter and has since been released on bond.
"You or I would be arrested if we went to the wrong apartment and blow a hole in a person's chest, killing them," Botham’s family attorney, Benjamin Crump, said of the case.
Guyger’s case will be presented to a grand jury after a more thorough investigation is conducted, Dallas County District Attorney Faith Johnson said Monday.
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