Officer fired after shooting neighbor in nabe's own apartment.
Firing of Amber Renee Guyger, who is charged with manslaughter in the deadly shooting of Botham Jean in Jean's own apartment, is premature, according to her lawyer.
The family of the man who was fatally shot in his own apartment by a Dallas police officer in September filed a federal lawsuit on Friday.
Botham Jean, a 26-year-old black man, was killed at home by Amber Guyger, a white police officer, after she claimed to have mistaken his apartment for her own and took him for an intruder.
She was later charged with manslaughter and fired from the force.
Both Guyger and the city of Dallas were named in Friday’s suit, which claimed that Guyger used excessive force when she shot Jean. The lawsuit also contends the department did not adequately train Guyger. The police department, the suit alleges, trains its officers to use deadly force even when no “immediate threat to themselves or others" exists.
An affidavit prepared by a Texas ranger said Guyger went to the wrong apartment after ending her shift on Sept. 6. The door was ajar, according to the document, and Guyger opened it to find a figure in the dark apartment. She drew her firearm moments later and shot two times, hitting Jean once in the torso, according to the affidavit.
Lee Merritt, one of the attorneys for Jean's family, has cast doubt on the narrative. Merritt has said that two independent witnesses told him they heard knocking on the door in the hallway before the shooting.
He said one witness reported hearing a woman's voice saying: "Let me in! Let me in!"
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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