Amber Guyger found guilty of murder for killing her neighbor.
Amber Guyer
"I never wanted to take an innocent person's life. I'm so sorry," Guyger said on the stand. "This is not about hate — it's about being scared."
She faces a maximum of life in prison.
Guyger was off duty but in uniform when she shot twice at Jean on Sept. 6, 2018, just before 10 p.m., striking him in the chest. She had worked a 13-1/2-hour shift on the Dallas Police Department's crime response team that day and parked on the fourth floor of the complex's garage.
She lived on the third floor, and Jean, a 26-year-old accountant and native of the island nation of St. Lucia, lived directly above her. The two did not know one another.
Prosecutors said Jean was watching television and eating ice cream in his living room when Guyger burst inside, likely scaring him. The track of the bullet showed that he was either getting up from his couch or cowering when she fired her service weapon, they added.
The fatal shooting, which has led to one of the most anticipated murder trials in Dallas in decades, became a crisis on issues of police use of force and racial bias. Guyger is white and Jean was black.
Testifying in her own defense last week, Guyger told jurors that she was scared for her life when she entered an apartment that she thought was hers and the man inside began coming toward her and yelling, "Hey! Hey! Hey!"
Guyger acknowledged to giving Jean minimal life-saving aid because she had only one hand free while she called 911.
Guyger, who was on the Dallas police force for more than four years, was fired from her job following the shooting. Toxicology results presented at trial showed she was not drunk during the shooting.
The defense brought on other tenants from the same apartment complex who testified that they also had parked on a different floor and gone to the wrong unit by mistake.
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