Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings says the shooting death of a 26-year-old black man by a white off-duty police officer “is a very serious situation for the city of Dallas”.
The Latest on a deadly shooting involving an off-duty Dallas police officer (all times local):
2:15 p.m.
Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings says the shooting death of a 26-year-old black man by a white off-duty police officer “is a very serious situation for the city of Dallas.”
He told reporters Saturday that the Texas Rangers, the top criminal investigative agency in the state, has taken over the probe into the shooting death late Thursday of Botham Jean.
Rawlings says Jean was a young professional who displayed leadership and was a man of faith, and that he was “exactly the sort of citizen we want to have.”
He says he spoke Saturday with Gov. Greg Abbott, who promised that the Rangers will ensure “justice will be served.”
Jean was shot by an off-duty officer who was returning home after working a shift. The officer told investigators she mistakenly entered the wrong apartment and encountered Jean.
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1:35 p.m.
Dallas’ police chief says a warrant for manslaughter hasn’t been issued for an officer who killed a man in his home because the Texas Rangers asked her department to wait.
Chief U. Renee Hall said Saturday during a panel discussion livestreamed on Facebook by television station WFAA that the state investigators said they needed more time to investigate the Thursday night fatal shooting of 26-year-old Botham Jean.
Police say the officer shot and killed Jean at his home and later said she had mistaken his apartment for her own.
Hall said at a news conference Friday that the officer would be charged with manslaughter, but it’s unclear if that will still be the case.
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1:30 p.m.
Government leaders of the Caribbean island nation of Saint Lucia say the shooting death in Dallas of an island native came as a “shock” and that embassy officials in the U. S. will provide assistance to the victim’s family.
Island authorities offered their condolences Friday to Allison Jean, who’s held a number of government posts and whose 26-year-old son was killed late Thursday.
Dallas police officials say Botham Jean was shot by an off-duty officer who told investigators that she mistakenly entered the wrong apartment after returning home from a shift.
Jean was taken to a hospital where he died.
The officer has not been identified and police Chief U. Renee Hall says she’ll be charged with manslaughter.
But it was not clear Saturday whether the officer has been formally charged or whether she’s in custody. A police spokeswoman declined to comment.
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11 a.m.
The mother of a black Caribbean man who was fatally shot by a white Dallas police officer who said she mistook his apartment for her own wonders whether her son’s race was a factor in his killing.
Allison Jean in comments Friday broadcast by Dallas TV station KXAS questioned whether the off-duty officer would have reacted differently if she encountered a white man.
Jean, who has held government posts in the island nation of St. Lucia, says her son’s death “just feels like a nightmare.”
Police say the officer shot and killed 26-year-old Botham Jean after she returned home from her shift Thursday night and said she mistook his apartment for her own. Authorities say she will be charged with manslaughter.
Botham Jean attended college in Arkansas and had been living and working in Dallas since 2016.
