Sixteen people – 12 jurors and four alternates – are set to hear the case of Amber Guyger, a former Dallas police officer who shot and killed an unarmed man in his own apartment.
Jury selection finished Friday night at the Frank Crowley Courts Building in Dallas, and State District Judge Tammy Kemp telephoned those selected to return to court for trial on September 23.
Guyger, 31, told police she mistakenly entered Botham Jean’s South Side Flats apartment instead of her own on September 6, 2018, and shot him, thinking he was a burglar.
Attorneys questioned hundreds of potential jurors. Several answered that they could not convict Guyger regardless of the evidence, while others said they were skeptical of Guyger’s story, according to CBS DFW. Kemp and the attorneys settled on the 16 around 9 p.m. Friday night.
The jury will consider several questions when the trail begins, among them whether the incident constituted a crime and if so, what crime: murder, manslaughter, or criminally negligent homicide, the Fort Worth Star Telegram reported.
Kemp told jurors to prepare for the possibility they may be sequestered for the duration of the trial, expected to last about two weeks.
Guyger reportedly told police that she had finished a 15-hour shift when she parked her car on the fourth floor of her apartment building, instead of on the third floor where she lived. She reportedly said the door was slightly ajar when she placed the key into the keyhole, causing the door to open further. Documents stated that she claimed she saw a “large silhouette” and gave it verbal commands before opening fire, fatally wounding Jean, a 26-year-old accountant, in his torso.
While officials denied the media’s requests for the 911 call Guyger placed on the night of the shooting and Jean’s autopsy report, the call was leaked in late April. In it, Guyger can be heard telling the dispatcher that she thought she was in her apartment and mentioning that she will lose her job. Guyger was fired from the Dallas Police Department several weeks later.
Ongoing coverage on the Botham Jean case can be read here.
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[Featured Image: Botham Jean/Facebook; Amber Guyger/Kaufman County Sheriff’s Office]