This news is making waves all over the world. Last night, after arriving home from work, a white, female, uniformed police officer entered the apartment of her neighbor’s…..thinking it was HER apartment. When she entered the apartment, she saw the black male who actually lived there. What did she do? Oh. She shot him. Last night, Botham Shem Jean was murdered in the place where he should have felt the safest. In his own home. Somebody’s gonna have to pay. Here’s the latest on this unbelievable nightmare.
“A Dallas officer was facing a manslaughter charge Friday after she fatally shot a 26-year-old man whose apartment near downtown she apparently mistook for her own.
“This is a very unique situation,” Police Chief U. Renee Hall said at an afternoon news conference. “We have ceased handling it under our normal officer-involved shooting protocol.”
The Texas Rangers have been called in to conduct an independent investigation, the chief added.
Hall said that police were obtaining a warrant charging the officer, whom the chief declined to name until she is formally charged. The chief said her blood was drawn to test for alcohol and drugs.
The unnamed officer, a five-year veteran, wasn’t hurt in the 10 p.m. shooting at the South Side Flats at 1210 S. Lamar St., just blocks from Dallas police headquarters in the Cedars.
Police officials say she arrived at the complex after working a full shift and was still in full uniform when she entered the victim’s apartment, thinking it was her home.
The victim was identified as Botham Shem Jean, a native of the Caribbean nation of Saint Lucia. A graduate of Harding University in Arkansas, he worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Dallas.
“I have spoken with the Jean family,” Hall said. “We have reassured them that we are working diligently.”
But, the chief added, “Right now there are more questions than we have answers.”
Authorities have yet to fully explain how the situation escalated to the shooting, declining to comment on whether the officer mistook Jean for an intruder.
“I won’t go into that information right now,” said Sgt. Warren Mitchell, a Dallas police spokesman. “We have not interviewed her. … We still have a lot to do in this investigation.”
Officials said that after the officer reported that Jean was wounded, other police arrived within four minutes and administered first aid. He was taken to Baylor University Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
The officer was placed on leave while the shooting is investigated with the Dallas County district attorney’s office.
According to the St. Lucia Times, Jean was the son of Alison Jean, who has supervised the island’s Department of Education, Innovation & Gender Relations as well as the Ministry of Infrastructure, Port Services & Transport.
Allisa Charles-Findley shared her grief online at the passing of her “baby brother,” saying she was just thinking about what to buy him for his 27th birthday later this month.
“Just last week I was thinking of what to get you for your birthday,” she wrote. “Now I have to go pick out your casket. … I love you with all of my heart.”
Jean’s uncle also paid tribute to the man Friday morning on Facebook.
“My heart goes with you my boy … never thought this day would come, wanted to be there for you always my boy … how can this nasty world take you away from me,” Earl Jean wrote.
Tracy Moore, a preacher who knew Jean from a Church of Christ Caribbean lecture series, told The Christian Chronicle that Jean was powerful singer who always had “a spirit of joy that flowed from him.”
Harding University officials were mourning the beloved former worship leader at chapel services Friday morning, a university employee said.
“We’re all deeply grieved,” spokeswoman Jana Rucker said. “He was just one of those people who really stood out, with his voice and his leadership.”
Fellow Harding alum Romas Roberson said Jean’s leadership was missed at the private liberal arts school in Searcy, Ark.
“He was a great guy who loved to smile, very positive leader for the young men that we had here,” Roberson said. “Everyone loved his voice!”
Sophia Pickle, 25, studied marketing at Harding and came to know Jean well, she said.
“He was amazing. He was wonderful. He was every good thing that you can imagine,” said Pickle, a Plano resident.
Pickle remembered attending a Halloween block party with Jean during their stay at Harding.
“It’s a Christian school, so we weren’t allowed to dance, we weren’t allowed to drink or smoke,” Pickle said. “So at this block party, we just had coffee there, then he and I went to McDonald’s for milkshakes.”
Pickle said she couldn’t understand how the shooting would have been possible.
“People don’t know [Jean], so they say, ‘Oh, maybe he did something,'” she said. “If he was there in his apartment, then I guarantee he would have been respectful; he would have had his hands up.”
A written statement from PricewaterhouseCoopers said Jean’s co-workers were heartbroken by the news.
“This is a terrible tragedy,” the company said in a statement. “Botham Jean was a member of the PwC family in our Dallas office and we are simply heartbroken to hear of his death.”
It was unclear how the officer got into the wrong apartment, where residents said they can access their units with a regular key or through a keypad code.
Police didn’t indicate that anyone else had witnessed the shooting, but 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 said.
Yazmine Hernandez, 20, was studying with Simpson when they heard the commotion.
“We heard cops yelling,” she said, “but otherwise had no idea what was going on.”
Other residents of the South Side Flats struggled to understand how the shooting happened.
“How can you make a mistake like that, getting into someone else’s apartment?” said 80-year-old Raquel, who has lived in the complex for less than a year. “Don’t they train police?”
The woman, who says she never gives out her last name, said she’d think twice when calling the police after this experience.
“Now if something happens to me,” she said, “I’m going to be too scared to call police because I’m afraid it will end in a tragedy.”
Tomiya Melvin lives in a nearby apartment complex and found out about the shooting while she was walking her dog in the morning.
“It’s terrible. I hope it’s just a tragic accident and nothing more than that,” said Melvin, who moved to Dallas from Chicago in June. “This area appealed to me because it always seemed so safe, and so far it has been.
“But I won’t be leaving my door unlocked anymore; that’s for sure.””
It will be interesting to see if this “unidentified” white female officer had alcohol and drugs in her system. She should be clean, being that she had just ended a shift.
The Dallas Police Dept. says they will not release the identity of this suspect until formal charges are filed. We SHALL receive justice for our brother Botham, because this was ridiculous.
Some people are speculating and saying maybe the cop and victim knew each other. Maybe the pair had a long-standing feud and she meant to go into his apartment. Maybe the officer is a disgruntled lover and shot Botham after he dumped her. Who knows? Anything is more probable than the explanation she gave.
For now, we are choosing to celebrate Botham’s extraordinary and brief life. This is the victim singing “Just A Little Talk With Jesus” with his college chorus.
Wow. What an amazing voice.
Mr. Jean was originally from St. Lucias, which means that travel expenses will be rather pricey. If you would like to help this family monetarily, click on to this go fund me link.
We will keep you guys in the know and post the mug shot of this “officer” when it becomes available.
