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A former Dallas police officer convicted of murdering her Black neighbor after walking into his apartment thinking it was her own was granted early parole on Thursday after serving seven years of her 10-year sentence.<\/p>\n
Amber Guyger, 38, who is white, was convicted of murdering 26-year-old Botham Jean, an accountant from St Lucia. Jean was eating ice-cream and watching television when Guyger mistakenly entered his home and shot him on 6 September 2018.<\/p>\n
Guyger was arrested three days after the shooting and was fired before her murder trial. She had faced up to life in prison or as little as two years. Prosecutors initially asked the jury for a minimum sentence of 28 years, a symbolic reference to the age Jean would have been at the time. Guyger was in the end given 10 years behind bars.<\/p>\n
The Texas board of pardons and parole rejected Guyger\u2019s initial parole request in 2024, but approved her case over the objections of Jean\u2019s family the first time she was eligible to ask again.<\/p>\n
<\/span>Amber Guyger testifies in her murder trial in Dallas on 27 September 2019.<\/span> Photograph: Tom Fox\/AP<\/p>\n The shooting drew widespread national attention because of the unusual circumstances and inflamed racial tensions as one in a string of shootings in the US of Black men by white police officers. Jean\u2019s mother, Allison, pondered days after his death: \u201cIf it was a white man would it have been different? Would she have reacted differently?\u201d<\/p>\n Guyger\u2019s sentencing hearing also included stunning courtroom scenes when, after the sentence was handed down, Jean\u2019s younger brother, Brandt, offered Guyger his forgiveness. \u201cI forgive you, and I know if you go to God and ask him, he will forgive you. I\u2019m speaking for myself, not my family, but I love you just like anyone else,\u201d Brandt told Guyger. He then asked the judge\u2019s permission to hug Guyger and the two embraced for about a minute.<\/p>\n The Black judge, Tammy Kemp, also embraced Guyger, whom she gave a Bible after the trial had ended. Kemp said Guyger had asked her if she thought God would forgive her, to which Kemp replied: \u201cYes, God can forgive you and has.\u201d She rejected criticism, saying after the trial: \u201cI could not refuse that woman a hug.\u201d<\/p>\n At trial, Guyger testified that after a long shift at work and still in uniform, she had walked up to Jean\u2019s apartment \u2013 which was on the fourth floor, directly above hers on the third \u2013 and found the door unlocked. She said she mistook the apartment for her own and thought that Jean was an intruder when she drew her service weapon and entered.<\/p>\n A lawyer for Jean\u2019s family, civil rights attorney Lee Merritt, said in a statement that the family was \u201cdeeply disappointed by the decision\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cA 10-year sentence was already a fraction of what was lost,\u201d Merritt said. \u201cReleasing Ms Guyger after seven years makes that loss feel even smaller in the eyes of the system. It is not. The family still lives with this loss every day.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2024, a jury ordered Guyger to pay Jean\u2019s family nearly $100m in damages in a federal civil trial. The jury found that she had used excessive force and violated Jean\u2019s constitutional rights when she shot him.<\/p>\n In granting Guyger\u2019s parole on Thursday, the board said the panel conducted \u201ca thorough review and consideration of a plethora of information\u201d. Her record did not include a documented pattern of violent arrests or convictions and she had \u201cmaintained a satisfactory institutional adjustment\u201d and completed programs in her prison treatment plan to obtain and keep a job when she is released, it said.<\/p>\n It is unclear when Guyger will be released. The board said the state prison system would determine that timeline.<\/p>\n Dallas police said in a statement to NBC News Dallas-Fort Worth that the department played no role in Guyger\u2019s request for parole or the decision to release her.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Dallas Police Department understands this decision may bring renewed attention and emotion surrounding the tragic death of Botham Jean. Our thoughts remain with the Jean family and all those impacted by his loss,\u201d the department said.<\/p>\n The Associated Press contributed reporting<\/em><\/p>\n