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Attorney: Neighbors Dispute Dallas Cop’s Account of Botham Jean’s Death

Officer Amber Guyger claimed she thought Jean was an intruder in her apartment when she shot him.

During a Monday morning press conference, an attorney claimed that neighbors of 26-year-old Botham Jean—who was shot in his apartment by an off-duty Dallas cop—disputed Officer Amber Guyger’s account of the incident. “They heard knocking down the hallway followed by a woman’s voice that they believe to be officer Guyger saying, ‘Let me in. Let me in,’” Lee Merritt, an attorney for Jean’s family, said. One of the neighbors then heard gunshots and a man’s voice, he said. “What we believe to be the last words of Botham Jean which was ‘Oh my god, why did you do that?’” Merritt said. That account of the incident differs from what Guyger, who is currently charged with manslaughter, told police. She claims she mistakenly thought Jean’s apartment was hers, and opened fire after he did not respond to “verbal commands,” believing him to be an intruder. Demonstrators gathered Monday evening to protest the shooting and Guyger’s manslaughter charge. Police fired pepper balls on the crowd as they assembled at the Dallas police headquarters.