According to a statement from the Dallas Police Department, Chief U. Reneé Hall decided to fire officer Amber Guyger after she fatally shot her unarmed neighbor Botham Shem Jean in his own apartment on Sept. 6, 2018. Guyger served on the DPD for five years, before an internal investigation concluded Guyger "engaged in adverse conduct when she was arrested for manslaughter."
Read the Dallas PD's statement below.
Guyger can still appeal Hall’s decision or seek employment at another police department while she remains out on bond. According to the Dallas Morning News, three days after the shooting Guyger turned herself in to police and was charged with manslaughter instead of murder, the former being a less severe charge. She was quickly released.
While DPD conducted an internal probe into the shooting, the Dallas County district attorney's office continues to work on an independent investigation before laying out its case to a grand jury, which will decide what charges Guyger could face in court.
Guyger's actions resulted in the death of 26-year-old Botham Shem Jean, whose family mourned as others scoffed in disbelief at the latest nationally reported police shooting of an unarmed black man. While police and some news outlets wrongly tried to smear Jean, research definitively concluded that the off-duty officer entered Jean’s home and shot him.
