Who is Botham Shem Jean, man reportedly killed in own apartment by Dallas police officer?

Credit: DaytonDailyNews

An off-duty Dallas police officer fatally shot a man Thursday night when she walked into the wrong apartment after work, officials said.

Officer Amber Guyger, a four-year veteran with the department, came home about 10 p.m., went into what she thought was her apartment and fatally shot the man who lived there, 26-year-old Botham Shem Jean, police said.

Guyger, 30, likely will be charged with manslaughter in the case, the Dallas Morning News reported.

Here's what we know about the victim:

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."

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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."

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?"

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