Botham Shem Jean was one of those rare people who is remembered as a universally respected human being. Person after person – whether family members or co-workers or neighbors or former classmates – describe him as a positive, friendly person whose life and successes were just getting started. However, his life came to a tragic end in a bizarre story that many feel doesn’t add up, and his death has become a rallying cry across the country for those concerned about police-related deaths. Jean, a 26-year-old businessman from a prominent Saint Lucian family, was shot and killed by a female Dallas police officer, Amber Guyger. Authorities say she accidentally went to Jean’s apartment, thinking it was her own. Everyone agrees that Jean did nothing wrong. He was just enjoying a bowl of ice cream and watching television when Guyger burst in. A jury in Dallas found the 31 year old former Dallas police officer guilty of murder for shooting the Saint Lucian businessman in his own apartment. The verdict capped a dramatic trial that saw the defendant’s own emotional apology on the stand and accusations of sexting. The jury sentenced Guyger to 10 years in prison. Jean’s family offered emotional testimony about his life and promise during the sentencing hearing. After it, his brother, Brandt Jean, asked to hug Guyger in court and offered her love and forgiveness. Watch that moment here. Botham’s mother, Allison Jean, described her son’s successes. After the sentence, she said, “That 10 years in prison is 10 years for her reflection and for her to change her life. But there is much more to be done by the City of Dallas. The corruption that we saw during this process must stop. And it must stop for you. Because after now I leave Dallas, but you live in Dallas, and it must stop for everyone.” Bertrum Jean, Botham’s father, told the jury: “How could we have lost Botham, such a sweet boy? He tried his best to live a good, honest life. He loved God. He loved everyone. How could this happen to him? In hindsight — what could we have done? My family is broken-hearted. How could it be possible? We’ll never see him again. And I want to see him, I still want to see him.” On November 30, 2018, Guyger was indicted on a murder charge. That charge, Dallas County District Attorney Faith Johnson said, required an element that the person “intentionally and knowingly” committed the crime versus doing it recklessly, CNN reported, quoting Johnson as saying, “At the moment of the shooting it was a knowing … offense.” Guyger’s lawyer insists the shooting was a “true mistake,” according to CNN. The Dallas Police Department identified the police officer as Amber Rene Guyger, who has been on the force for four years. You can read more about Officer Guyger here. Guyger was arrested by the Texas Rangers in Kaufman County, Texas on the evening of September 9, 2018. The Dallas Police Department announced on September 24, 2018 that it had fired Guyger. Kaufman County Jail online records show that Guyger was being held on $300,000 bail, which she then posted. Here’s a close up of her mugshot: The arrest affidavit alleges that Jean’s door was unlocked, and it was dark inside when Guyger entered it. She allegedly thought he was a burglar when she saw a person in the dark, shooting Jean a single time in the chest. The Dallas Morning News reported that she had just worked a 15-hour shift, had parked on the wrong floor of the parking garage, and was one floor up from her actual floor. However, at trial, prosecutors told jurors that Guyger’s belief that the apartment was her own was unreasonable and she should have known it wasn’t. Among other clues, Jean’s apartment had a bright red floor mat outside, and Guyger’s did not. She also may have lost points with the jury when it was revealed she was sexting her partner that night. An emotional Guyger apologized from the stand and said she shot Jean because she was scared, wrongly thinking he was an intruder in her apartment. Botham Shem Jean, a recent college graduate known for his leadership and singing voice in church, was originally from the Caribbean island nation of Saint Lucia, and, according to their Facebook comments and tributes, he was the pride of his family, a young man who came to America to study accounting and for whom great things were expected. The officer worked in patrol. The police chief said that, when officers first responded to the call, they believed it was an “officer-involved shooting,” but the circumstances changed as more details were revealed, creating, “a very unique situation.” She said, “We have ceased handling it under our normal protocol as an officer-involved shooting.” Botham Shem Jean, whose nickname was “Bo,” comes from a prominent family in Saint Lucia. According to St. Lucia Times, Jean was the son of Allison Jean, described as “former Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Innovation, Gender Relations and sustainable Development” and Bertram Jean, who was a store supervisor for Water and Sewerage Company Inc., known as WASCO. His uncle, Ignatius Jean, is “Chief Executive Officer of the Caribbean Water and Sewerage Association Inc. (CAWASA) and former government Minister and Parliamentarian,” St. Lucia Times reported. On LinkedIn, Botham Jean described himself as an “aspiring young professional” who was “engaged in developing a career built upon integrity, dedication and relationships, leveraging useful technologies to gain an understanding of and add value in a range industries, striving towards leadership in my career, my community and society.” He was working in Dallas as a risk assurance associate for PricewaterhouseCoopers, according to his LinkedIn page. In college, he was president of a Young Leaders group. Alyssa Kinsey, who was Jean’s neighbor in the apartment complex where he was shot, and who heard the gunfire, told Heavy in an interview that Jean was a good person through and through. “He was really just as great as all the stories say….. a huge bright smile, kind, smart, respectful, genuine… I’m just at a complete loss,” she said. A former classmate who attended college with Jean in Arkansas, Landis Tindell, told Heavy in an email that he was a “great leader on our campus.” Tindell explained, “He was a campus leader. Very active in leading worship and campus student government. I don’t think there was a student on campus who didn’t know Botham. He was always friendly, always smiling, and just all around a great person.” The Dallas Mayor, Mike Rawlings, pledged on Saturday, September 8, 2018 that justice would be served. “Botham Jean was exactly the sort of citizen we want to have in the City of Dallas,” the mayor told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “A professional … a believer in his church, a neighbor to his friends. A man that always had a smile on his face. And for that reason, this is a terrible, terrible thing that has happened. Not only has he lost his life, but we’ve lost a potential leader for this city.” However, since Guyger’s arrest, the lawyer for Jean’s family has raised a series of questions about law enforcement’s handling of the death. For example, he questioned why authorities conducted a search warrant of Jean’s apartment, revealing that he had a small amount of marijuana, an effort that attorney Lee Merritt argues was designed to “smear” the reputation of Jean, whose death has been decried by religious leaders in Dallas and others throughout the country. Here’s what you need to know: 1. Police Say the Police Officer Was in Full Uniform When She Mistakenly Approached the Apartment of Jean, Whose Neighbor Calls Him a ‘Genuinely Great Man’ According to an affidavit, Botham Jean’s apartment number was 1478 and Guyger lived one floor below him in apartment 1378. The apartments are “in most ways identical or extremely similar to the exterior surroundings, structure, and description of each other,” the document says. The affidavit says that Jean was home alone when a uniformed Guyger, who had just ended her shift, arrived at the complex and parked on its fourth floor, which corresponds to the floor Jean lived on, not Guyger. Guyger “entered the building and walked down the fourth floor hallway to what she thought was her apartment,” the affidavit says. “She inserted a unique door key, with an electronic chip, into the door key hole.” NEW: arrest affidavit for DPD officer Amber Guyger. READ: what she told Texas Rangers which led to her manslaughter charge on Sunday in the death of #BothamShemJean @wfaa pic.twitter.com/f0SjrkJoap — David Goins (@dgoins) September 10, 2018 However, the door, “which was slightly ajar prior to Guyger’s arrival, fully opened under the force of the key insertion,” the document contends. After the door opened, “Guyger observed that the apartment interior was nearly completely dark. Additionally, the door being opened alerted Complainant Jean to Guyger’s presence. Believing she had encountered a burglar, which was described as a large silhouette, across the room in her apartment, Guyger drew her firearm, gave verbal commands that were ignored by Complainant Jean,” the affidavit alleges. But prosecutors told the jury that evidence shows Jean was either getting up from his sofa or cowering when shot. As a result, “Guyger fired her handgun two times striking the Complainant one time in the torso,” according to the affidavit, which says that Guyger entered the apartment, calling 911 and requesting police and EMS. She turned on the interior lights while on the phone with 911. Upon being asked where she was located by emergency dispatchers, she returned to the front door to observe the address and discovered she was at the wrong apartment,” the document alleges. Guyger then called 911 from her cell phone requesting an ambulance and police to the location. Jean was transported to Baylor Hospital, where he died. Guyger remained at the scene and told the responding officers and 911 operator that she thought she was at her apartment when she shot Jean, according to the affidavit. Guyger “believed she was in her apartment and confronted by a burglar when she fired her handgun, striking and killing him,” the document says. She was accused of only offering him minimal first aid. Dallas police previously released basic details of what occurred in a news release. “On September 6, 2018 at about 9:59 p.m., an off duty Dallas Police officer called police dispatch and said she was involved in a shooting at the apartments located at 1210 S. Lamar,” they wrote. Naomi Martin, a Dallas Morning News reporter, wrote on Twitter that her source also says that Guyger did not know Jean before the shooting and had moved into the upscale apartment complex only the month before. “Preliminary information suggests that the officer arrived home in full uniform after working a full shift,” police said initially. “The officer reported to the responding officers that she entered the victim’s apartment believing that it was her own. At some point, the officer fired her weapon striking the victim. Responding officers administered aid to the victim, a 26-year-old male, at the scene. The victim was then transported to the hospital and pronounced deceased.” A woman posted Instagram videos that she said show the shooting’s aftermath. You can learn more about those videos here. The Jean family attorney has also revealed that there were noise complaints made by downstairs neighbors about Botham Jean’s apartment. Guyger lived below Jean. Meanwhile, members of Guyger’s family have denied being racist, with her brother-in-law, Noe Garza, saying hand signals he was making in a photo with Guyger were not white power symbols. Police Chief Renee Hall said at a press conference that a blood draw was taken from the officer to test for drugs and alcohol. The results of the test are not yet publicly known. Jean was initially identified as the shooting victim by the Dallas Morning News and relatives on social media. The Morning News asked the police early on whether the officer mistakenly thought Jean was an intruder – in Jean’s own apartment. Update: A Dallas police officer shot and killed a man after entering an apartment unit she believed was her own, police say.<doc-sep>Photo : Jeff Montgomery ( Harding University ) As the circumstances surrounding Botham Shem Jean’s shooting death remain cloudy, mourners gathered yesterday to pay tribute to the 26-year-old Caribbean native who was gunned down in his own home by a uniformed Dallas police officer on Thursday night. The cop, who remains unidentified, was off-duty at the time of the shooting, and claims she mistook Jean’s apartment for her own. Advertisement Mourners from Jean’s native St. Lucia to Dallas shared their grief and posted tributes to the young man, whom friends and family remember for his beautiful voice and “wonderful spirit.” As the Dallas News reports, an hour-long vigil was held for Jean outside Dallas police headquarters on Friday; an estimated 15o people were in attendance. Among them were Mothers Against Police Brutality and protesters, who held up signs imploring “Where is justice when police kill us?” “Disarm off duty police,” and “Life is not a white privilege.” Members of Dallas West Church of Christ, where Jean worshipped and was a Bible Study leader, were also in attendance. “He had a wonderful spirit, and we’ll miss him” Rena Williams, a fellow member of the church, told the Dallas news. Jean, who worked at the accounting firm PriceWaterHouseCoopers, moved to the U.S. to attend Harding University in Arkansas, where he graduated in 2016. His mother, Allison Jean, a senior official at St. Lucia’s Ministry of Education, Innovation, Gender Relations and Sustainable Development, told NBC News that Jean was an excellent student in high school. Advertisement The New York Times reports that Jean was a member of the “Good News Singers” at Harding. “With a booming, soulful voice, Mr. Jean often led the group in songs,” the paper writes. The University posted a tribute to Jean on its Facebook page, asking the campus community to join in praying for Jean’s friends and family, “and for all who were touched by his extraordinary life.” Advertisement Jean’s uncle, Earl Jean, also posted a tribute on Facebook. “My heart goes with you my boy...how can this nasty world take you away from me,” Earl wrote, alongside pictures of him and his nephew. “Uncle loves you so much.” Advertisement In conversation with NBC News, Jean’s mother said she and her son talked frequently, so she thought it was strange when he didn’t call on Thursday night. Advertisement “It just still feels like a nightmare,” she said. “I wish I would wake up and find that it wasn’t true.” Allison Jean, who, according to the Times, is currently undergoing chemotherapy treatment, also mentioned that the circumstances of her son’s death made no sense to her—a sentiment shared by many. Advertisement Speaking to NBC about the cop who killed her son, Allison Jean said, “I need to look into her eyes and ask her why she did that to my son. She took away my heart, she took away my soul, she took away everything.” “[He] was in no wrong place at any wrong time. He was in his sanctuary, in the place where he called home. He didn’t deserve this.” Advertisement According to the Times, the officer who shot Jean is not in custody. Dallas Police are reportedly seeking a manslaughter charge against the officer.<doc-sep>
1. Jean was originally from Saint Lucia. In a Friday press release, the Embassy of Saint Lucia said it was "shocked and saddened" to learn of his death, offering condolences to his mother, who worked for the government, and other family members. "To have such a promising life taken so violently is devastating," the release said. "While we await more details on this tragic event, we place our faith in the system and trust that a full and thorough investigation will be conducted." >> Read more trending news 2. He graduated from Arkansas' Harding University in 2016, where he studied accounting. He served as a worship leader and resident assistant at the private, Christian liberal arts school, the university said in a news release. He also was a member of the Good News Singers. University President Bruce McLarty recalled Jean's enthusiastic reaction to leading singing one evening. "Because of the subject, there was a particular old hymn that I asked him if he would mind leading," McLarty said, according to the release. "He didn't say anything about not knowing the song, but he had never heard it before in his life. He came up that evening and was just smiling and excited about leading it. He told me he had never heard the song before, but that day, he called back to St. Lucia and asked his grandmother to teach him that old hymn on the phone. So he shared it with us at lectureship that night, and it was a truly special moment." We learned this morning of the tragic death of 2016 alumnus Botham Jean, who was shot in his home last night. Our entire family grieves today for the loss of Botham who has meant so very much to us. Please join us in praying for Botham’s friends & family. https://t.co/K1Swfm8i9Y pic.twitter.com/mSVCR2EVJq — Harding University (@HardingU) September 7, 2018 3. He later moved to Dallas, taking a job in risk assurance at accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers. "This is a terrible tragedy," the company said in a statement Friday. "Botham Jean was a member of the PwC family in our Dallas office, and we are simply heartbroken to hear of his death." 4. He was active at the Dallas West Church of Christ and cared deepy about social justice. "I would have heard this story, if this wasn't Bo, and I would have immediately texted him, and we would have a dialog about that," Jessica Berry, daughter of the church's minister, Sammie Berry, told KXAS. "He was a very smart young man and just had a nice, sweet, humble heart. That's the best way I can explain it." 5. His mother, Allison Jean, questioned Guyger's story and said her son's death "feels like a nightmare." "I don't want to judge her," she said of Guyger in an interview with KXAS-TV. "We are Christians. We forgive. But I need to look into her eyes and ask her why she [did] that to my son. She took away my heart, my soul. He didn't deserve to die. The explanation does not make sense." She also wondered whether her son was shot because he was black. "If he was a white man in that apartment, would it have been different?" Allison Jean asked. "Would she have reacted differently?"