Dallas officer goes home to wrong apartment, kills man inside

[ghost2509]

Dallas officer goes home to wrong apartment, kills man inside


fox4news.com
Sept 7, 2018

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DALLAS - An off-duty Dallas police officer shot and killed a man after walking into the wrong apartment in her building just south of Downtown Dallas.

It happened around 10 p.m. Thursday. The Dallas Police Department said the officer had just finished her shift and entered what she believed was her own apartment at the South Side Flats. The complex is near the department's headquarters on Lamar Avenue.

But it was not the right apartment and the officer ran into a man who she didn’t recognize. She ended up shooting him. She called 911 afterward, police said.

Responding officers found 26-year-old Botham Shem Jean badly wounded. He was taken to the hospital and died a short time later.

People who live nearby said they got a notification about the shooting on the app Nextdoor. They can't believe what happened.

"Super scary because the police are supposed to protect you and then they come home and, you know, you're just hanging out in your own house and then they come home thinking they're home or whatever. I don't know if she was tired but that's pretty scary," said Richard Healy Nelson, who lives in the complex.

The Officer

Dallas Police Chief Rene Hall said in the interest of being as transparent as possible, she has invited the Texas Rangers to take over the investigation. So far they have drawn the officer’s blood and they are in the process of getting a warrant for manslaughter.

“Initial indications were that we were dealing with an officer-involved shooting. However, as we continued the investigation it became clear that we were dealing with what appears to be much of a very unique situation. Therefore, we have ceased handling it under our normal officer-involved shooting protocol,” she said.

Police will not identify the female officer until she has been formally charged. However, Chief Hall did confirm she is a white patrol officer.

There are still a lot of questions about the events leading up to the shooting. Police would not say whether the officer fired her weapon because she thought Jean was an intruder or for some other reason. It's also not clear how she got into the wrong apartment.

Chief Hall asked the community and the media for patience and cooperation.

“Right now there are more questions than we have answers. We understand the concerns of this community and that is why we are working as vigorously and as meticulously as we can to ensure the integrity of this case,” she said.

The Victim

According to Jean's Facebook page, he was a native of Saint Lucia who graduated from Harding University in Arkansas. He worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers, a multinational audit and consulting firm with offices in Downtown Dallas.

"This is a terrible tragedy. Botham Jean was a member of the PwC family in our Dallas office and we are simply heartbroken to hear of his death," the company said in a statement.

Former classmates from Harding University told the ChristianChronicle.org that he was known for his deep faith and his beautiful singing voice.

Harding University President Bruce McLarty shared fond memories of him after learning of his death. The university said he frequently led worship and chapel services on campus.

Chief Hall said she has been in contact with Jean’s family and offered her condolences.

“We have reassured them that we are working diligently and that we have invited an outside agency to investigate this,” she said.

[Namcot]

More info here:

http://dallasnews.com/news/crime/2018/09/06/shooting-reported-cedars-near-dallas-police-headquarters

How did she get into the wrong apartment?

Was the front door unlocked?

Once she was in the wrong apartment, she didn't realize it?

You'd think she would realize it within minutes since everything in it doesn't look familiar: different furniture, different decoration, etc etc.

Was she on drugs or drunk?

Those are some nice apartments too:

http://southsideflatsapts.com/

[alexora]

Originally Posted by Namcot

How did she get into the wrong apartment?

Was the front door unlocked?

Once she was in the wrong apartment, she didn't realize it?

You'd think she would realize it within minutes since everything in it doesn't look familiar: different furniture, different decoration, etc etc.

Was she on drugs or drunk?

Yes: was she under the influence when she mistook another person's home for her own?

Our home is our castle, and we should be protected from such invasions, particularly when they result in us getting murdered...

[SadVarant]

How in the fuck does this happen? How ridiculously low are the standards of officer training that something like this could ever happen? Why was she so trigger happy? Surely before pulling the trigger, any police officer should be questioning someone, ordering them on the floor, etc. How does someone with so much authority make such a dumb ass mistake in the first place?

It's like they'll accept any dumb ass who got better than half marks in high school as a cop, especially over there in the States. The standard of training needs to be improved dramatically. I've always thought getting a job as a police officer should be just as demanding and gruelling as Special Operations Forces training, such as U.S Green Berets and British SAS. That way only people truly adequate for the task at hand, and professional, and importantly people who will not crack or panic under pressure, but keep a cool collected head. Those are the types of people that should be police officers. So that shit like this becomes nigh impossible. Being a police officer should be a very difficult job to acquire because it demands the best of the best. Accepting any old dickhead is certainly not accepting just the best.

Fuck this failure of a cop. Charge her, sentence her and put her in general population. She fuckin' deserves that.

[Namcot]

Originally Posted by SadVarant

It's like they'll accept any dumb ass who got better than half marks in high school as a cop, especially over there in the States.

Actually it was like that before law enforcement departments around the country in the 1990's started raising their entry requirements requiring applicants to have at least 60 hours of college education.

Some departments now even require at least an associate college degree.

Then the State agencies in 50 states in charge of handing out law enforcement licenses for peace officers (like TCOLE in Texas) also started raising educational and testing and licensing requirements and standards before giving someone a peace officer's license.

In Texas, TCOLE doesn't just regulated peace officers' licenses, they also regulate correctional officers and law enforcement dispatchers.

So this lady officer looks like she had poor judgement even if she had the required minimum to get enrolled and licensed.

[Namcot]

Here comes the usual activitists, i.e. folks who want to be on camera, folks who want to spread rumours and hearsays and speculations and taint the truth, folks who are hoping to get an easy payday.

Don't these folks have jobs to go to.

How are they able to spend days after days, hours after long hours, protesting something and in this case, selfishly disrupt the folks who live in that apartment building who still have to go to work, school, daily routines and have lives of their own to live?

http://nbcdfw.com/news/local/Activists-Friends-and-Victims-Mother-Demand-Justice-for-Botham-Jean-492747481.html

Let the law do their investigation.

[SadVarant]

All it says in that article is, and I quote, "Dozens of people gathered under a cloudy sky in front of the Dallas Police Department headquarters to remember a light in the lives of many."

It makes no mention of blocking off streets, impeding the flow of traffic, vandalisation of property or any of the other ugly shit that is often attributed to a lot of protests. If it's truly a harmless protest, or gathering, then I don't see it as controversial at all. If anything, it's understandable that friends, family and people who knew the victim would be pissed off. Especially if he was killed in such an unnecessary and pathetic manner. They'd want to ensure that the police do not try and cover up anything, or make light of the officer's misconduct, as they have been known to do in the past.

The fact that the Texas Rangers are getting involved is a good sign though. At least then it's not just the officer's own department, her friends and comrades, doing the investigation. If only old Chuckie boy was with the Rangers, the investigation would be concluded by the end of the weekend.

[alexora]

Originally Posted by Namcot

Let the law do their investigation.

When you say "the law", are you referring to the Dallas PD where the officer who killed her neighbour works?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dallas_Police_Department#Misconduct

[Namcot]

A law enforcement department has to investigate every time one of their own is involved in a shooting.

But they brought in the Texas Rangers which is a good sign.

I read elsewhere this morning that the female officer tried to open the door to the wrong apartment with her keys and when that didn't work, she banged on the door calling out Police open the Door, and the occupant opened it to see who it was, words were exchanged, God knows what else happened before she shot the occupant.

[alexora]

Originally Posted by Namcot

A law enforcement department has to investigate every time one of their own is involved in a shooting.

But they brought in the Texas Rangers which is a good sign.

I read elsewhere this morning that the female officer tried to open the door to the wrong apartment with her keys and when that didn't work, she banged on the door calling out Police open the Door, and the occupant opened it to see who it was, words were exchanged, God knows what else happened before she shot the occupant.

I am wondering if she was drunk or on drugs: mistaking one's own home for another isn't something that one would expect from an individual who has been trained to use their powers of perception and observation...