Officer Opens Wrong Door; a Tragedy Results

The Dallas officer faces a manslaughter charge
By Luke Roney,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 7, 2018 4:30 PM CDT
Officer Opens Wrong Door; a Tragedy Results
A man was killed after a Dallas police officer allegedly entered the wrong apartment and shot him.   (Getty)

"Right now, there are more questions than answers." That's what Dallas Police Chief Renee Hall told reporters Friday when updating them about a shooting in which it appears an officer entered the wrong unit in her apartment complex and killed a man who was inside, NBC reports. Authorities investigating the Thursday night shooting, which claimed the life of 26-year-old Botham Shem Jean, aren't the only ones with questions. "How can you make a mistake like that, getting into someone else's apartment," a resident of the apartment complex asks, speaking to Dallas News. "Don't they train police?" The female officer, who is on leave and has not yet been named, now faces a manslaughter charge, according to reports.

Authorities took blood samples from the officer to test for alcohol and drugs, and the Texas Rangers will conduct an independent investigation in the "different and very unique situation," Hall said during her press conference. According to reports, the officer who shot Jean was returning home, in full uniform, when she encountered the man in an apartment. Any interaction they had is not clear. After the officer shot Jean, she called 911. Jean died later at a hospital. Jean, originally from the island of St. Lucia, came to the US to study at the Christian Harding University in Arkansas, per NBC, where he is remembered as "always friendly, always smiling." After graduating in 2016, he got an internship with PwC in Dallas. "My brother is my best friend," Jean's sister tells NBC. "My heart is broken beyond repair." (More police shooting stories.)

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