A Dallas police officer is facing manslaughter charges after entering the wrong apartment and fatally shooting the man inside.
According to NBC News, 26-year-old Botham Shem Jean was shot and killed Thursday evening after the off-duty officer mistook his apartment for her own and shot him. It is not yet clear what led to the unnamed officer killing Jean, but officials say that she arrived at the apartment complex after working a full shift.
“This is a very unique situation,” Dallas Police Chief Reneé Hall said at a news conference Friday afternoon. “We have ceased handling it under our normal officer-involved shooting protocol.”
Officials say that after the officer reported that Jean was wounded, other police arrived within minutes and tried to administer first aid. Jean was then rushed to the hospital where he was pronounced dead, the Dallas Morning News reports.
The five-year veteran officer wasn’t hurt in the incident.
Hall did not say why the officer opened fire and declined to discuss what she may have been doing before she returned home. She added that the Texas Rangers were launching an independent investigation.
Jean’s mother was visiting family out of town when she heard that her son, a student at Harding University in Arkansas, had been killed, NBC News reports.
The Harding family learned this morning of the tragic death of 2016 alumnus Botham Jean, who was shot in his home last…
Posted by Harding University on Friday, September 7, 2018
“Somebody has to be crazy not to realize that they walked into the wrong apartment,” his mother Allie Jean said. “He’s a bachelor. Things are different inside.”
“And if you try your key and it doesn’t work, that should make you realize you’re at the wrong apartment,” she added. “Every door for each apartment is also numbered.”
The officer, who is white, has been placed on leave while the shooting is being investigated.
