This March 24, 2014, photo provided by Harding University in Searcy, Ark., shows Botham Jean, speaking at the university. Authorities said Friday, Sept. 7, 2018, that a Dallas police officer returning home from work shot and killed Jean, a neighbor after she said she mistook his apartment for her own. The officer called dispatch to report that she had shot the man Thursday night, police said. She told responding officers that she believed the victim’s apartment was her own when she entered it. (Jeff Montgmery/Harding University via AP)
[UPDATE: 09/07/2018]
DALLAS (AP) — The Latest on fatal shooting by off-duty Dallas police officer (all times local):
1:05 p.m.
Dallas’ police chief says her department is seeking to charge a white officer with manslaughter in the killing of a black neighbor.
Chief U. Renee Hall said at a news conference Friday that “there are more questions than we have answers” in the Thursday night killing of 26-year-old Botham Jean, but that with the information investigators have now, they’re seeking a manslaughter charge against the officer.
Police say the officer shot and killed Jean and that she later told officers that she mistakenly entered his apartment, thinking it was her own.
Hall didn’t address whether investigators believe race was a factor in the shooting.
___
11:35 a.m.
A private Christian university in Arkansas says the 26-year-old man who was killed by an off-duty Dallas police officer who said she confused his apartment with her own was a native of the Caribbean island country of St. Lucia who often led worship services at the school’s campus.
Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas, said in a statement Friday that Botham Jean was a 2016 graduate of the school. Since July 2016, he had been working in risk assurance for accounting and consulting firm PwC.
[ORIGINAL STORY]
DALLAS (AP) — A Dallas police officer returning home from work shot and killed a neighbor after she said she mistook his apartment for her own, police said Friday.
The officer called dispatch to report that she had shot the man Thursday night, police said. She told responding officers that she believed the victim’s apartment was her own when she entered it.
The responding officers administered first aid to the victim, whom the Dallas County medical examiner’s office identified as 26-year-old Botham Jean. He was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead.
Police haven’t released the name of the officer, who wasn’t injured. She will be placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation, police said.
Authorities haven’t said how the officer got into Jean’s home, or whether his door was open or unlocked.
At a Friday morning news conference, Sgt. Warren Mitchell acknowledged there are many questions about what happened that he couldn’t answer.
“We still have a lot to do in this investigation. So there’s a lot of information I understand you guys want but this is all we can give you at this time,” Mitchell said.
When asked if anyone else had witnessed the shooting, Warren replied, “We have not spoken to anyone else at this time.”
Residents of the apartment complex said they can access their units with a regular key or through a keypad code.
Two women who live on the second floor near where the shooting happened said they heard a lot of noise late Thursday.
“It was, like, police talk: ‘Open up! Open up!'” 20-year-old Caitlin Simpson told The Dallas Morning News.
Yazmine Hernandez, 20, was studying with Simpson when they heard the commotion.
“We heard cops yelling, but otherwise had no idea what was going on,” Hernandez said.
Tomiya Melvin, who moved from Chicago to a nearby apartment complex in June, said she found out about the shooting while she was walking her dog Friday morning.
“It’s terrible. I hope it’s just a tragic accident and nothing more than that,” Melvin said.
Police said they are conducting a joint investigation with the Dallas County district attorney’s office.
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