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Lawyers call police officer's story in wrong-apartment shooting 'highly implausible'

5 years 2 months 3 weeks ago Tuesday, September 11 2018 Sep 11, 2018 September 11, 2018 3:57 PM September 11, 2018 in News
Source: Associated Press

DALLAS (AP) — Attorneys for the family of a black man shot dead by a Dallas police officer in the man’s own home say the arrest affidavit contradicts neighbors’ accounts.

The affidavit prepared by a Texas Ranger was released Monday and appeared to be based almost entirely on Officer Amber Guyger’s account of the shooting of 26-year-old Botham Jean. Guyger was arrested Sunday on a manslaughter charge in the Thursday shooting.

The affidavit says Guyger mistook Jean’s apartment for hers and that his front door was ajar when she entered. She also told investigators that she shot Jean after he refused her verbal commands.

An attorney for Jean’s family, Lee Merritt, said at a news conference Monday evening that two independent witnesses have told him they heard knocking on the door in the hallway before the shooting.

He said one witness reported hearing a woman’s voice saying, “Let me in! Let me in!” Then they heard gunshots, after which one witness said she heard a man’s voice say, “Oh my God! Why did you do that?”

Merritt said he believes those were Jean’s last words.

Another lawyer for the family, Benjamin Crump, said the affidavit “is very self-serving.”

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