Re: Dallas Officer Kills Neighbor...

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I lived in a 9 story dorm in college and each floor layout, wall color, and carpeting were the same. You could get off on another floor and walk to "your room" very easily after a long day. They got around this by painting each elevator lobby a different color with a different mural on the opposite wall and a large number indicating the floor. So when the doors open you have visual cues which floor was which.

The other thing you could do is if your key doesn't work, look at the number on the door.
Brian

Re: Dallas Officer Kills Neighbor...

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I did have an encounter exactly like what SilaSoule described. Walked up to the wrong door, struggled to make the lock work, the door unexpectedly flew open from the inside with me facing a strange (but attractive) young woman who looked unusually angry at me (given that she wasn't my wife in which case thay would be normal). My bad... right floor but wrong wing.

I'm surprised that people actually open the doors in such situations. Why wouldn't they just use the peep-hole and answer from the inside? I thought most women would at least use the chain-lock in such instances...

Anyway, I can see how the officer completely wigged out after a 14-hour shift serving warrants in a hard neighborhood -to see a guy in his skivies inside what she thought was her apartment. I don't blame her but she did kill an innocent guy without cause so probably will go to jail.

As to why the guy opened the door... maybe it was his birthday and he thought his friends sent over a stripper-gram. -Oh, never mind!
"It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of non-violence to cover impotence. There is hope for a violent man to become non-violent. There is no such hope for the impotent." -Gandhi

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highdesert wrote: Mon Sep 10, 2018 7:39 pm
TrueTexan wrote: Mon Sep 10, 2018 6:05 pm Tonight's news is saying now she found the door ajar when she inserted her key.
I'm interested in the results of the blood test which we won't likely see until the trial.
I understand the fascination, somehow it all seems wrong to speculate and so on. By responding to y'alls post I'm not judging either of your comments. I am likewise curious about both points. On a personal note on buildings, a week or so ago I was going to work and accidentally stepped off the elevator on the third instead of the fourth floor. It took me a few seconds to figure it out, but only because my mind was able to register that hair removal office was not there when I stepped off the elevator. I suspect apartments offer no such clues. This is a sad event, one person has lost his life and another regardless of the outcome will have to live the consequences of wrongfully taking a life.
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"Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated!" Loquacious of many. Texas Chapter Chief Cat Herder.

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Witnesses dispute Dallas cop's account in fatal shooting of neighbor, attorney says

"According to an arrest warrant, Guyger told investigators that she went to what she thought was her third floor apartment. Instead, she went to Jean's fourth floor apartment directly above hers. Guyger says her door was "ajar" and saw a "large silhouette" inside. After giving "verbal commands that were ignored," she fired her handgun twice, striking Jean once in the torso. It wasn't until Guyger "turned on the…lights" and "called 911" that she realized she was "at the wrong apartment"."

---

"Attorneys for Jean's family say two witnesses told them details that contradict Guyger's account.

"They heard knocking down the hallway followed by a woman's voice that they believe to be officer Guyger saying, 'Let me in. Let me in,'" attorney Lee Merritt said.

The family's attorneys say one of the witnesses then heard gunshots followed by a man's voice.

"What we believe to be the last words of Botham Jean which was 'Oh my god, why did you do that?'" Merritt said.

Allison Jean wants to know what happened to her son. "I'm not satisfied that we have all the answers," Allison said."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/botham-jea ... s-account/
"When and if fascism comes to America... it will be called, of course, ‘Americanism'." - Halford Luccock
"Liberty without socialism is privilege and injustice. Socialism without liberty is slavery and brutality."
— Mikhail Bakunin

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Dang, this is looking bad for the officer. Now we have disputing accounts of the story and it's become political...

At least one organization is calling for the grand jury to prosecute her for murder:

https://act.colorofchange.org/sign/just ... 141.fnu52h
"It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of non-violence to cover impotence. There is hope for a violent man to become non-violent. There is no such hope for the impotent." -Gandhi

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Jeebus! A search warrant for the victim's home?

This case is gonna get super political now!
"It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of non-violence to cover impotence. There is hope for a violent man to become non-violent. There is no such hope for the impotent." -Gandhi

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eelj wrote:So they search his apartment and find the stash of pot he could have and the case is closed. He had it coming to him.
Anything the police are willing to transport from their evidence locker could be found in the victim's flat.
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13ʞ
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I saw a news report yesterday that she parked on the 4th floor. So I’m assuming you can walk from the parking level to the hallway of apartments. I’m assuming the parking levels are marked with the floor you are on. What other indicators are there to say you are on the 4th floor and not the 3rd floor.


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During the September 10 edition of her NRATV program Relentless,[Dana] Loesch suggested that [Botham] Jean would still be alive if “he was a law abiding gun owner,” claiming that he could have used a firearm to defend himself, sparking widespread outrage and incredulity.
https://www.mediamatters.org/blog/2018/ ... ath/221290
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

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Attorney: Amber Guyger Might Have Made Noise Complaints Against Botham Shem Jean

"Very few connections have been verified between Amber Guyger and Botham Jean, but the attorney for Botham Shem Jean’s estate has said that he did find one possible connection between the two: noise complaints. Amber Guyger, a Dallas police officer, has been charged with manslaughter after admitting to going to Botham Jean’s apartment after her shift was over and shooting and killing him when she mistook his apartment for her own. The exact details of what happened are still being investigated. Now the attorney for Jean’s family has revealed that Jean’s downstairs neighbor made multiple noise complaints against him. Amber Guyger lived directly below Botham Shem Jean, but it’s not confirmed if she was the one who actually made those complaints.

In an interview with CNN, S. Lee Merritt, the attorney representing Jean’s estate, said that multiple noise complaints had been made against Jean, including on the day he was shot."

https://heavy.com/news/2018/09/amber-gu ... omplaints/
"When and if fascism comes to America... it will be called, of course, ‘Americanism'." - Halford Luccock
"Liberty without socialism is privilege and injustice. Socialism without liberty is slavery and brutality."
— Mikhail Bakunin

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Pot Is No More Relevant to the Shooting of Philando Castile Than It Is to the Shooting of Botham Jean
When the Fox station in Dallas highlighted the marijuana found in shooting victim Botham Jean's apartment, the tweet drew criticism from the left and the right. Especially striking was a comment from Dana Loesch, the conservative TV and radio host who also serves as a spokesperson for the National Rifle Association. "How is this germane to what happened?" she asked.

Good question. Since Jean was killed in his own home by Amber Guyger, an off-duty Dallas police officer who said she mistook his apartment for hers and him for a burglar, the fact that Guyger's colleagues later found 10.4 grams of marijuana there has no bearing on her criminal culpability, as Joe Setyon noted earlier today. Yet Loesch seems to take a different view of marijuana's relevance in the case of Philando Castile, the driver who was shot and killed by St. Anthony, Minnesota, police officer Jeronimo Yanez during a 2016 traffic stop. Loesch, whose position on whether a jury was right to acquit Yanez of manslaughter is hard to pin down, has repeatedly brought up Castile's cannabis consumption, although it's not clear why.

Dashcam video of the incident shows that Yanez panicked after Castile, who had a concealed carry permit, calmly said, "Sir, I have to tell you that I do have a firearm on me." Yanez told him not to reach for his weapon, Castile assured him that he would not, and within a few seconds Yanez drew his gun and fired seven rounds, mortally wounding Castile. The evidence, including the testimony of Castile's girlfriend, who was in the car at the time, indicated that Castile was trying to retrieve his driver's license, which Yanez had asked to see.

Re: Dallas Officer Kills Neighbor...

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Colion Noir on the Fox News story on marijuana found.
colionnoir@fox4news What does this have to do with the price of tea in China? 😑 man gets shot in his own apartment by someone who wasn’t supposed to be there and we’re talking about weed? WTF?
me beyond comprehension. I have waaay too many questions. How do walk into the wrong apartment? Was she drunk? Do they have the same key? He was your neighbor, you didnt recognize him? In all fairness, if I come home (the correct home) and you’re inside and not supposed to be and I don’t know you, all bets are off. However, this just doesn’t make any conceivable sense to me. Something doesn’t smell right. My heart goes out to the family of #BothemJean #RIP Just Damn.
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Re: Dallas Officer Kills Neighbor...

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Amber Guyger, the off-duty Dallas officer who shot and killed a man in his apartment last week, may be treated as a civilian, not police, under the law, First Assistant District Attorney Mike Snipes of the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office told The Washington Post on Wednesday. The death of Botham Shem Jean, which the National Review called the “worst police shooting yet,” introduced several legal decisions for the prosecutor’s office, including whether Guyger was acting under the authority of the law during Thursday’s fatal shooting.

In the days that followed Jean’s death, Guyger said the shooting was rooted in her mistaken belief that she had opened the door to her own downtown Dallas apartment. At the time, the officer claimed, she thought there was a burglar inside her unlit unit, according to the arrest warrant affidavit. Before unholstering her service weapon and pulling the trigger, Guyger said she gave Jean verbal orders, which he ignored. These details matter for several reasons:

In Texas, a police officer has the right to use deadly force when making an arrest if she reasonably believes it’s either “immediately necessary” or that not doing so would create a substantial risk that the person kills or seriously injures another. An officer has no duty to retreat first. Texas also has stand-your-ground laws, permitting a civilian to defend herself against a threat — whether real or perceived — with the level of force reasonably believed necessary. Texas law similarly permits the use of deadly force to protect one’s property in select situations, such as preventing a burglary.

Used by law enforcement and civilians alike, these defenses are applied broadly at trial and hinge on whether a person’s actions are reasonable. A trial jury makes the final determination. “Juries show a lot of deference to officers for the use of deadly force. They’re typically sympathetic to police,” said Kenneth Williams, a law professor at South Texas College of Law Houston. But this is not a “traditional” police officer shooting, according to Williams, despite having a police officer shooter who claims she was in danger. Because Guyger was not making an arrest or pursuing a perpetrator, the facts fail to fall under laws permitting officer use of deadly force, he said.

Based on the information the Dallas District Attorney’s Office has, Snipes, who is ramping up for the upcoming grand jury presentation, said Guyger will probably be treated as a civilian. At such an early posture in the case, this matters little, practically speaking — it will neither alter the charges presented to the grand jury nor how the prosecution proceeds. Down the road, though, Guyger faces a more challenging legal battle. Although her reported belief that she was inside her own apartment was mistaken, the law does consider what an officer believed at the time of an offense and whether it was reasonable. A trial jury would probably find that Guyger was legally justified as a police officer in her use of deadly force, Williams said.

Before deliberations, a court will instruct jurors on the definition of “reasonable,” usually explaining it as what a reasonable person in the shoes of the defendant would do, according to Amber Baylor, associate professor and criminal defense clinic director at Texas A&M University School of Law. In cases involving on-duty police officers, the definition is expanded to a reasonable person in the shoes of an officer, who is required to make split-second decisions. “The reasonable officer standard is broader. It may provide more space for a jury to believe an officer feared for his life and acted in self-defense,” Baylor said.

A similar argument was used successfully in the 2016 prosecution and acquittal of a Minnesota policeman who fatally shot Philando Castile during a traffic stop. It could also cut the other way, leading jurors to hold a law enforcement officer to higher standards based on training and position. If Guyger is prosecuted as a civilian, certain defenses will no longer be available to her. She would effectively be precluded from hiding behind the “use of deadly force” protections afforded police officers. As a non-officer, Guyger could — and undoubtedly would, based on the arrest warrant affidavit that all but says she intended to shoot and kill Jean — still claim she acted in self-defense. However, the caveat for defense statutes is that they’re only available to those who have a “right to be present at the location where the deadly force is used.”

The case, then, comes down to the trial jury’s analysis of whether she acted reasonably: a civilian breaking into a neighbor’s apartment, intentionally aiming and firing a gun and killing him. “Was intruding into the apartment a reasonable mistake?” Williams said. “The young man was not engaged in criminal activity, he was just basically in the wrong place at the wrong time, even though it was his apartment. He was the victim of bad circumstances.” Any jury sympathy, he added, would tend toward the unarmed man killed at home by an officer who erred in using deadly force.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2 ... f836565c92
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

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What the investigation is looking like a cover up to support the cop.
The overt contradictions in Dallas police officer Amber Guyger’s story about how and why she shot Botham Shem Jean, a 26-year-old Black man, in his own apartment September 6 would leave anyone with even a rudimentary set of reasoning skills in doubt.

First, we heard from anonymous police sources that after parking on the wrong floor of her apartment complex and arriving at Jean’s door, mistaking it for her own (despite his bright red floor mat), she entered his apartment easily because the door was unlocked. Later, we heard that, actually, Guyger inserted her electronic key and struggled with the lock, putting down several items she was holding to continue wrestling with it before Jean opened the door himself.

Finally, a version was settled on: Guyger says that Jean’s door was already slightly ajar, so when she inserted the electronic key, it pushed the door open. She alleges that she then entered Jean’s dark apartment and saw his silhouette across the room, thinking she was being burglarized. She drew her gun, gave “verbal commands” that she says Jean “ignored” and shot him twice, once in the torso, according to the Texas Rangers arrest warrant affidavit.

But at least two of Jean’s neighbors at the apartment complex demonstrated and confirmed to The Intercept’s Shaun King that the apartment doors at the complex do not readily hang ajar, but rather, swing shut. Further, even the Dallas Police Department’s (DPD) own search warrant contradicts Guyger’s account. Instead, it accuses Jean of directly confronting Guyger, reporting that a witness heard “an exchange of words, immediately followed by at least two gunshots.” The DPD also has it that Jean was right at the door, rather than across the room.

This set of mind-bogglingly contradictory accounts is one of the reasons that thinking people in Dallas-Fort Worth are fuming in the streets, demanding Guyger be charged with murder and fired from the force. (On September 9, Guyger was arrested on manslaughter charges and was released after a little more than an hour on $300,000 bail.) The DPD’s response to their protests? Balls of pepper spray.

Jean’s family has spoken out about authorities’ highly irregular handling of the case. Jean’s mother, Allison Jean, called on the department to “come clean.” The family has expressed frustration with how officials have juggled the case: handing it from the DPD to the Texas Rangers and most recently, to the Dallas County district attorney’s office — apparently in a trust-building exercise lost on the public.

The family has turned to local attorney S. Lee Merritt, who is now running his own concurrent investigation. He recently told reporters that two witnesses overheard knocking and one witness immediately adjacent to Jean’s apartment heard a woman’s voice saying, “Let me in,” before the shooting. More critically, Merritt told CNN that there had been noise complaints registered at the apartment complex that came from the “immediate downstairs neighbor,” which would have been Guyger’s third-floor apartment, and that there had been a noise complaint “that very day.” The existence of noise complaints may provide an ulterior motive for the shooting.

Attacking Jean’s Character

As this information was punching holes in Guyger’s questionable accounts, the DPD was busy attempting to assassinate Jean’s character to shore her up. Even as Jean was being laid to rest Thursday, Dallas police released a public record showing that, rather than searching the apartment of a supposedly disoriented officer, who, by their own accounts, was behaving nothing short of bizarrely the night of September 6, they instead found 10.4 grams of marijuana on the victim’s kitchen counter. (Police tested Guyger’s blood for drugs and alcohol but have not made the results public.)

“To have my son smeared in such a way,” said Allison Jean Friday, “I think shows that the persons who are really nasty, who are really dirty and are going to cover up for the devil, Amber Guyger.”

Authorities are likely feeling the pressure to mount a smear campaign in order to get Guyger off the hook. While in the past, a police officer’s acquittal might be taken for granted, Dallas’s police are fresh off the heels of the conviction and sentencing in August of former Balch Springs officer Roy Oliver in the police-perpetrated shooting of 15-year-old Jordan Edwards.
Meanwhile, few reporters have focused on Guyger’s own character. While she and her family quickly erased their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram profiles in the days after the shooting, Guyger’s Pinterest account has recently surfaced, revealing troubling, albeit typical, aspects of her own police-oriented disposition. The account contains a meme critical of the Black Lives Matter movement and supportive of law enforcement: “When the Police RIOT for the death of a brother…… They do it with CLASS.” Another meme that didn’t age well: “PEOPLE ARE SO UNGRATEFUL. No one ever thanks me for having the patience not to kill them.”

Irregularities mark Guyger’s case from top to bottom, including atypical police procedures during her booking into the Kaufman County Jail, her last-minute manslaughter charges, the volleying of the investigation between law enforcement entities and lastly, the overwhelming sympathy for her story in her own charging documents.

As Dallas-area defense attorneys have noted, the language of the probable cause affidavit for Guyger’s manslaughter charge seems to have been carefully written to legally shield her. Probable cause affidavits are typically written to justify and support the arrest of a criminal defendant. In Guyger’s case, however, Stephen Le Brocq told Law&Crime, the affidavit “is written such that, one would question why a warrant was even issued.”
https://truthout.org/articles/why-dalla ... character/
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.-Huxley
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis Brandeis,

Re: Dallas Officer Kills Neighbor...

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One may consider that the media "circus" is directly responsible for whether a trial will take place over this shooting or not. If it were not for the attention it raised this shooting may have been long buried by now.
"It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of non-violence to cover impotence. There is hope for a violent man to become non-violent. There is no such hope for the impotent." -Gandhi

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Remember Dallas leads all Texas counties in the number of Inocent project cases.. The DA office has been tainted for decades by racism, but is slowly changing. To get anything even close to the real story it takes the media to keep the officials honest.
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.-Huxley
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis Brandeis,

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