Former Dallas Officer Granted Parole After 7 Years for Jean's Death

Amber Guyger, a former Dallas police officer, has been granted parole by the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole after serving seven years of her 10-year sentence for the 2018 murder of Botham Jean. Guyger was convicted of shooting Jean in his apartment, which she claimed to have mistaken for her own. On September 6, 2018, after a more than 13-hour work shift and while still in uniform, Guyger entered the fourth-floor apartment of Jean, who lived directly above her third-floor unit in the South Side Flats building near downtown Dallas. She fired twice, stating she believed Jean was an intruder. Jean, a 26-year-old accountant from St. Lucia, was eating ice cream at the time and died from his injuries.

Guyger was arrested three days after the shooting and fired from the Dallas Police Department 18 days later. At trial in 2019, her legal team invoked a "mistake of fact" defense and claimed self-defense under the Castle Doctrine, arguing that her mistaken belief she was in her own apartment negated her culpability for murder. Prosecutors countered that her mistake was unreasonable and resulted from extreme carelessness. She was convicted of murder and sentenced to 10 years; prosecutors had requested no fewer than 28 years. Guyger first became eligible for parole on September 29, 2024, but was denied at that time following opposition from Jean's family, the Dallas County District Attorney's Office, and more than 6,300 people who signed an online petition.

The Texas Board of Pardons and Parole approved her parole this week after finding that her prison record showed no documented pattern of violence, that she maintained satisfactory institutional adjustment, and that she completed treatment programs intended to support employment upon release. No release date has been announced; the state prison system will determine timing. The decision has drawn strong opposition from Jean's family and civil rights communities. Civil rights attorney Lee Merritt stated that Jean's family "strongly opposed this parole" and expressed concern that releasing Guyger after seven years diminishes accountability for the loss of life.

In a separate civil trial in 2024, a jury of six men and six women found Guyger liable for Jean's death and ordered her to pay $98.6 million in damages to his family. Notably, Guyger did not appear in person or have legal representation during that three-day civil trial; her criminal defense attorney stated she lacked funds to hire counsel. The Dallas Police Department issued a statement acknowledging the decision and expressing condolences to the Jean family while noting that parole decisions are made by the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole, outside the department's authority.

The case gained national attention both for its unusual circumstances—a police officer mistaking a neighbor's apartment for her own—and as part of a broader pattern of shootings of Black men by white police officers. Botham Jean Boulevard, which runs along the Dallas Police Department's headquarters, was renamed from Lamar Street and dedicated to Jean's memory.