DALLAS -- A date has been set for the murder trial of a white former Dallas police officer who fatally shot an unarmed black man in his own apartment.
Court records show that Amber Guyger is scheduled to begin a jury trial Aug. 12, less than a year after the off-duty officer shot Harding University graduate Botham Jean, whose apartment she said she mistook for her own.
Guyger, a four-year veteran of the police force, was arrested on a manslaughter charge three days after the Sept. 6 shooting of Jean, a 26-year-old native of the Caribbean island of St. Lucia who worked in Dallas for an accounting and consulting firm.
The case drew national attention and the initial charge was criticized as being lenient. Guyger was fired from the Dallas Police Department later in September. A grand jury indicted her for murder in November.
Jean graduated from Harding University in Searcy with a double major in accounting and information systems in 2016.
According to police, Guyger shot and killed Jean after returning to the South Side Flats, where they both had apartments.
Guyger said she got to what she thought was her apartment -- Jean's was directly above hers -- and found the door ajar. She opened it to find a figure standing in the darkness. She said she pulled her gun and fired twice after the person ignored her commands.
State Desk on 03/19/2019