(CNN) A police officer who claimed she killed a Dallas man in his own apartment in the mistaken belief that he was in her home was indicted Friday on a murder charge, authorities said. 
 
 The indictment of Amber Guyger comes more than two months after she was arrested in the shooting death of Botham Shem Jean at the Dallas apartment complex where both lived -- a killing that sparked days of protests. 
 
 Guyger was arrested after the September shooting and charged with manslaughter by the Texas Rangers, the lead investigative agency, Dallas County District Attorney Faith Johnson said at a news conference. 
 
 When asked why the grand jury indicted Guyger on the more serious offense of murder, Johnson replied, "We presented the evidence and we explained the law." 
 
 Johnson said murder constitutes someone "intentionally and knowingly" committing a crime, whereas manslaughter involves "recklessly doing something." 
 
 "At the moment of the shooting it was a knowing ... offense," Johnson said. 
 
 The court records Friday showed both a manslaughter and murder charge entered in Guyger's file, but a clerk of court clerk confirmed that the murder charge is the one prosecutors are moving forward on. 
 
 Robert Rogers, Guyger's attorney, was disappointed but not surprised by the indictment, given what he called an "outpouring of vindictive emotion" in a statement late Friday. 
 
 "This is a terrible tragedy that resulted from a true mistake," he said. "We are confident that a dispassionate jury in a fair forum will objectively apply the law to the facts and find Amber not guilty." 
 
 Guyger had already been arrested again and released on bond, Johnson said at the news conference. 
 
 Dallas Police Chief U. Reneè Hall said in a statement everyone in the department "continues to feel anguish about this difficult and tragic event." 
 
 "We recognize and understand the national discord regarding the relationship between law enforcement and the communities we serve," Hall said. 
 
 She also added that the department has "developed a framework for policy change" by restructuring the Citizen Review Board, revamping implicit bias training and seeking input from employee advisory and community advisory boards. 
 
 "We have more work to do and we remain committed to improving our relationships throughout the city," Hall said. 
 
 The indictment is a "step toward justice" for Jean's family, said Sharon Watkins Jones, ACLU of Texas Director of Political Strategies. 
 
 "The Jean family's loss cannot be restored to them, but we will continue to work to ensure that police officers are held to the same standards as everyone else in the Dallas community and across the state of Texas," she said. 
 
 'He didn't deserve it," Jean's mother says 
 
 Botham Jean's mother, Allison Jean, said during a news conference that she's satisfied with the murder indictment. 
 
 Guyger "inflicted tremendous evil on my son," Allison Jean said. "He didn't deserve it. He was seated in his own apartment. He felt safe and he was violated by her coming in and murdering him," she said. 
 
 Allison said she hopes a proper penalty will cause Guyger to reflect on what she has allegedly done and the pain she has caused. 
 
 Family attorney S. Lee Merritt said the grand jury decision is "groundbreaking, but it is also just a start." 
 
 Officer thought she was in her own apartment, warrant says 
 
 Guyger, who is white, was off-duty when she encountered Jean , an 26-year-old unarmed black man, in his apartment on September 6, police said. Still in her uniform, Guyger parked her car in the complex and walked to what she believed was her apartment, according to an arrest warrant affidavit 
 
 The door was slightly ajar as she tried to use her key, which has an electronic chip. When she opened the door, she saw the interior was almost completely dark, according to the affidavit. She described seeing a large silhouette and, believing there was an intruder in her apartment, drew her firearm. 
 
 Amber Guyger is charged with killing Botham Shem Jean on September 6. 
 
 She issued verbal commands, but Jean, being in his own home, did not heed them, and Guyger fired two shots, hitting him once in the torso, the affidavit said. 
 
 Guyger, a four-year veteran, then entered the apartment, called 911 and started administering first aid to Jean. She turned on the lights while on the phone with 911, and only when asked for her address did she realize she was in the wrong apartment, she told police. 
 
 Jean died at a hospital. Guyger was arrested September 9 on suspicion on manslaughter, and was released from the Kaufman County Jail after posting a $300,000 bond. 
 
 The Dallas Police Department fired Guyger during a hearing September 24, the police chief said. 
 
 Johnson will not prosecute the case. She was defeated in the November election by John Creuzo t, who will take office in January. 
 
 JUST WATCHED CNN was granted access to Botham Jean's apartment Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH CNN was granted access to Botham Jean's apartment 03:30 
 
 The shooting sparked days of protest . Police deployed pepper balls on demonstrators a week after the shooting. Protesters angry with the lack of public information in the case interrupted a City Council meeting to demand accountability and more police oversight in general. 
 
 Jean's parents filed a lawsuit in federal court against Guyger and the city last month, alleging Guyger used excessive force. 
 
 Correction: An earlier version of this article said that Guyger was indicted on a charge of manslaughter. The officer has been indicted on a murder charge. The headline and article have been updated to reflect this change. ||||| A former Dallas police officer who walked into an unarmed man’s apartment on Sept. 6 and shot him while wearing her police uniform has been indicted on a charge of murder. 
 
 The Dallas County grand jury began hearing the case against Amber Guyger, 30, on Monday. Guyger was originally charged with manslaughter in the shooting death of 26-year-old Botham Shem Jean. She was released from jail on a $300,000 bond about an hour after turning herself in. 
 
 District Attorney Faith Johnson said that by 3 p.m., Guyger had turned herself back in on the murder charge. Her bond was transferred and she has been released. 
 
 Asked why the grand jury indicted Guyger on a murder charge, Johnson said, “We presented the evidence and explained the law.” She added that the law prohibits her from talking about the evidence presented to the grand jury. 
 
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 She said her office had a “very spirited conversation” with the Texas Rangers, the lead investigators in the case, back in September. 
 
 “They chose to file this case as manslaughter,” she said. “We did our own investigation.” 
 
 She said that prosecutors talked to more than 300 witnesses. 
 
 Guyger has said she mistook Jean’s apartment at the South Side Flats for hers that night after getting off a long work shift, Dallas police said. Court documents have varied on the story of how Guyger got Jean’s door open. 
 
 FILE - This file photo provided by the Kaufman County Sheriff’s Office shows Amber Guyger. A grand jury began hearing evidence Monday, Nov. 26, 2018, in the case of Guyger, a former Dallas police officer who fatally shot her unarmed black neighbor in his own apartment after she said she mistook it for hers on Sept. 6, 2018. (Kaufman County (Texas) Sheriff’s Office via AP, File) AP 
 
 Johnson said that at the moment of the shooting, the action was intentional. She was not able to speak about what Guyger was thinking or doing before the shooting. 
 
 For a charge of murder, prosecutors have to prove without a reasonable doubt that Guyger intended to kill Jean. 
 
 Court documents have said that Guyger says she believed Jean was an intruder in her own apartment. 
 
 The Star-Telegram, along with several other media outlets, have requested copies of the 911 call Guyger made after the shooting, along with body camera footage worn by the officers who responded. The Dallas Police Department has declined to release that information and sent the open records requests to the attorney general for final determination. 
 
 Guyger was not wearing a body camera. The department said officers leave their body cameras at work after their shift. 
 
 Johnson, who was voted out of office in the Nov. 6 election, will not see the case through to a trial and said Friday that she “trusts the DA-elect will continue to represent this family (and all of Dallas County) as he seeks justice for victims.” 
 
 Johnson also spoke about why it took her office two months to bring the case in front of a grand jury. She said she wanted to make sure the jurors had everything they needed to “make the right choice.” 
 
 “We thought it was murder all along,” she said. “But we didn’t file this case ... we did what we had to to get this case ready for the grand jury. Justice is never too long.” 
 
 Moving forward, it could be more than a year before Guyger sits in front of a judge and jury. It took 16 months, Johnson said, for the case against Roy Oliver to go to trial. Oliver shot and killed 15-year-old Jordan Edwards while on duty as a Balch Springs police officer. He was found guilty of murder. 
 
 Guyger was fired from the Dallas Police Department on Sept. 24. On Friday, Police Chief U. Renee Hall released a statement saying every person in the department continues to “feel anguish about this difficult and tragic event that occurred.” 
 
 “We have developed the framework for policy change, have supported the restructuring of the Citizen Review Board, pushed to exceed the basic requirements of implicit bias training, and have relied on input from our employee advisory and community advisory boards,” she said. “We have more work to do and we remain committed to improving our relationships throughout the city.” 
 
 
 
 
 
 The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law said the indictment is an “important reminder that police derive their authority from the people and it is the people, functioning as members of grand juries, who must insist that police authority be exercised in a lawful manner and who must hold police accountable when they fail to do so.” 
 
 Jean was a native of the Caribbean island of St. Lucia. After graduating from college in Arkansas, he moved to Dallas to work for PriceWaterHouseCoopers. 
 
 Jean’s family filed a lawsuit against the City of Dallas and its police department in late October. 
 
 Jean’s family says in the suit that Guyger had a history of violence and used excessive force against Jean that fateful night in September, resulting in his wrongful death. 
 
 The family also says the Dallas Police Department “has a pattern, practice, history, and custom of using excessive force against minorities,” and accuses it of not providing proper training or discipline for Guyger in the use of deadly force. 
 
 “By simply following proper police procedures and the best police practices and not the protocol of the DPD to ‘shoot first and ask questions later,’ Defendant Guyger would have not shot Jean,” the lawsuit states. “Essentially, Officer Guyger was ill-trained, and as a result, defaulted to the defective DPD policy: to use deadly force even when there exists no immediate threat of harm to themselves or others.” 
 
 SHARE COPY LINK The parents of Botham Jean — Allison and Bertrum Jean — sat down with the Star-Telegram on Oct. 17 to talk about their son, who was killed by an off-duty, uniformed Dallas police officer on Sept. 6.
– In September, Amber Guyger, at that time a Dallas police officer, walked into the apartment of Botham Shem Jean and shot the 26-year-old to death. Guyger lived in the same building as Jean and claimed that she thought she was entering her own unit and believed he was an intruder. On Friday, a grand jury indicted Guyger on a murder charge, CNN reports. Texas Rangers had initially arrested Guyger on a manslaughter charge. But Dallas County DA Faith Johnson said at a news conference, the grand jury settled on the more serious charge after “we presented the evidence and we explained the law.” The Texas Rangers “chose to file this case as manslaughter,” she said, per the Star-Telegram. “We did our own investigation. We thought it was murder all along.” Johnson said that murder involves causing a death “intentionally and knowingly,” as opposed to manslaughter, which results from recklessness. “At the moment of the shooting it was a knowing … offense,” she said per CNN. Jean, who was a native of St. Lucia in the Caribbean, went to college in Arkansas before moving to Dallas to work for PriceWaterHouseCoopers. His family filed a lawsuit against the city and police department in October. (This officer was fired for not shooting someone.)