Dallas street named in memory of Harding grad killed by officer

Allison Jean takes a photo of the sign for Botham Jean Boulevard in Dallas on Saturday, March 27, 2021. Jean's son, Botham Jean, was murdered in his apartment by a Dallas police officer in September 2018. Botham Jean lived on this portion of the street, formerly known as South Lamar Street. (Juan Figueroa/The Dallas Morning News via AP)
Allison Jean takes a photo of the sign for Botham Jean Boulevard in Dallas on Saturday, March 27, 2021. Jean's son, Botham Jean, was murdered in his apartment by a Dallas police officer in September 2018. Botham Jean lived on this portion of the street, formerly known as South Lamar Street. (Juan Figueroa/The Dallas Morning News via AP)

DALLAS -- Officials have renamed a portion of a Dallas street for Botham Jean, an unarmed Black man who was fatally shot in his apartment by a white former police officer who mistook Jean's apartment for her own.

During a ceremony on Saturday, city officials and Jean's family unveiled new street signs for Botham Jean Boulevard. The newly renamed street runs along the apartment complex where Jean lived.

"It is really hard to be here. It is bittersweet. Yes, we want everyone to remember Botham. We want everyone to forever say his name, but for this sign to be up here, that means he's not and it is hard for us," said Allisa Findley, Jean's sister. "I thought I was going to be strong because this is supposed to be a celebration, but I miss my brother. I want him back."

Jean was a graduate of Harding University in Searcy.

Ex-Dallas police officer Amber Guyger killed Jean in September 2018. At her trial, Guyger testified that after a long shift, she mistook his apartment for her own on the floor below and shot Jean while thinking he was a burglar.

Jean, a 26-year-old accountant from the Caribbean island nation of St. Lucia, had been eating a bowl of ice cream when Guyger entered his home and shot him.

Last year, a jury sentenced Guyger to 10 years in prison after a trial that spurred the national debate over race and policing. The trial ended in a courtroom scene in which Jean's brother and the judge embraced the sobbing officer.

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