Murder of Botham Jean

On the night of September 6, 2018, 26-year-old accountant Botham Jean was shot and killed in his own apartment in Dallas, Texas, by off-duty Dallas Police Department officer Amber Guyger. Jean and Guyger lived in separate units at the South Side Flats complex, with Guyger's third-floor apartment directly below Jean's fourth-floor unit. After finishing a 13.5-hour shift, Guyger drove to the complex and walked to Jean's apartment, which she later said she believed was her own, despite visual differences between the units. Finding the door ajar due to a lock malfunction, she entered and found Jean sitting in his living room eating ice cream, unarmed, with his laptop open. Guyger fired her handgun twice, striking Jean in the chest. She called 911 at 9:59 p.m., and Jean was taken to a hospital, where he died from his wound. The Texas Rangers investigated, leading to Guyger's arrest three days later.

Guyger was initially charged with manslaughter, a decision that sparked protests and accusations of racial bias, given that Jean was an unarmed Black man killed by a white officer who had reportedly disregarded standard police protocol of calling for backup rather than entering a residence alone. On November 30, 2018, a Dallas County grand jury indicted Guyger for murder. The Dallas Police Department had placed her on paid administrative leave and later fired her on September 24, 2018.

At trial, prosecutors argued Guyger's presence in the wrong apartment stemmed from a phone conversation with her romantic partner rather than fatigue, and that she deviated from protocol by entering rather than calling for backup. On October 1, 2019, a jury found Guyger guilty of murder after six hours of deliberation. She was sentenced to 10 years in prison the following day. During sentencing, Jean's mother gave testimony, and Botham Jean's brother, Brandt Jean, publicly forgave and hugged Guyger. Guyger's attorneys appealed, but the Fifth Court of Appeals of Texas upheld her conviction twice in 2021, and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied further review.

The case also drew scrutiny over the handling of evidence: a police sergeant's supervisor instructed that an in-car camera be turned off during Guyger's detention, a matter later referred to a grand jury, which declined to indict him. A key witness, Joshua Brown, was shot and killed in October 2019 in an unrelated incident that authorities said involved a drug transaction; three men were later indicted on capital murder charges in connection with his death.

In November 2024, a civil jury awarded Jean's family $98.65 million in a wrongful death lawsuit against Guyger, who did not appear at trial. The city of Dallas had been dismissed as a defendant, leaving Guyger solely liable. Guyger was denied parole in October 2024. In response to the case, Dallas renamed part of South Lamar Street as Botham Jean Boulevard, and Texas passed the Botham Jean Act restricting when police may disable body cameras.