BREAKING BUZZ NEWS: Amber Guyger, The Ex Police Officer Who Killed Botham Jean, is Found Guilty of Murder

Former police officer in Dallas who fatally shot her black neighbor after mistaking his apartment for her own—was found guilty of murder on Tuesday.

Amber Guyger was convicted for the Sept. 6, 2018, slaying of 26-year-old Botham Jean in a case that prompted mass protests in Dallas against racial bias and police use of excessive force. 

Jean, a 26-year-old accountant at PricewaterhouseCoopers, was sitting on his couch eating vanilla ice cream around 10 p.m. when Guyger entered his apartment and shot at him twice: one bullet hitting the wall behind Jean and another fatally striking his chest. Guyger said that she’d confused his apartment for her own and believed he was an intruder, shooting at him in self-defense.

“I thought it was my apartment,” Guyger told dispatchers 19 times on the frantic 911 call played in court. “I thought it was my apartment. I’m fucked. Oh my God. I’m sorry.”

Guyger, who now faces up to 99 years in prison, will be sentenced on Tuesday afternoon. According to reporters in the courtroom, the ex-cop and her mother began to cry as soon as the verdict was read, while Jean’s mom threw both of her arms up in the air.

Several of Jean’s family members also embraced members of the prosecution team. Outside the courtroom, his family shared hugs, as supporters cheered, “It’s a new day!” and “black lives matter.”

Defense attorney Toby Shook did not rely on gaining sympathy for Guyger from the jury.
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Instead, he argued that the prosecution did not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Guyger intended to kill that night. Shook characterized the shooting as a “horrible perfect storm” and that Guyger made a “horrible horrible mistake,” but that did not equate to murder or even manslaughter.

“You can be angry with her. You can hate her, but you can't convict her because that's no evidence as to the decisions that were made in that apartment,” Shook said.