Amber Guyger, the white female Dallas police officer involved in the shooting death of a black man named Botham Shem Jean, has been fired from her job after weeks of pressure from the community.
Her lawyer, Robert Rogers, believes this is the wrong decision. For him, that is not how the justice system is supposed to work.
However, according to critics, it took too long to get to this point. An official had to explain last week why it was difficult to fire Ms. Guyger.
The chief of the Dallas Police, U. Reneé Hall had to share with the media and the concerned residents why Officer Guyger was spared any disciplinary action after she shot and killed her 26-year-old neighbor, Botham Jean, by mistake.
The incident occurred on September 6, and according to the officer, she thought Jean’s apartment was her own.
Moreover, Guyger, 30, claimed that after she got back home after a long shift, she attempted to enter the unit and assumed that she was being robbed.
However, the family of the deceased is not convinced. They said that Jean’s front door was decorated with a red carpet that could not be mistaken and the apartment was more distinguishable than others in the building.
Jean’s relatives, as well as his lawyer, insisted that Guyger deserved to be let go of her position because of what happened.
For the time being, the police officer is being investigated by the Dallas Police, the Texas Rangers, and the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office.
According to Chief Hall, she did not take any measures against Guyger because she did not want to interfere with the ongoing investigation of her former employee.
Hall issued an official statement on Thursday, explaining in detail what her reasoning for not firing Guyger was. In substance, she stated that federal laws prevented her from acting.
However, not everyone was convinced by Hall’s claims, as the Dallas lawyer and former police officer, Pete Schulte, expressed his opinion that nothing will stop the internal investigation and the criminal investigation from proceeding simultaneously as they did in every other case.
Jean’s family attorney, S. Lee Merritt, called Guyger’s firing a “victory.”
