key witness in the murder trial of Dallas police officer was shot and killed

Late Botham Jean's neighbor Joshua Brown, left, answers questions from Assistant District Attorney LaQuita Long, right, while pointing to a map of the South Side Flats where he lives, while testifying during the murder trial of former Dallas Police Officer Amber Guyger, in Dallas on Tuesday, September 24,2019.

DALLAS – A  key witness in the murder trial of a white female Dallas police officer who fatally shot her black neighbor has been killed in a shooting according to The Dallas Morning News.

The newspaper reported that authorities said Joshua Brown was shot and killed Friday in Dallas. The 28-year-old Brown lived in the same apartment complex as Officer Amber Guyger and Botham Jean when Guyger shot Jean to death in September 2018.

Brown testified in Guyger’s trial about the night that Jean was killed, saying he was in a hallway on the fourth floor, where he and Jean lived. He said he heard what sounded like “two people meeting by surprise” and then two gunshots.

Guyger was convicted Tuesday and sentenced the next day to 10 years in prison. Guyger, who was off duty but in uniform, had said she mistook Jean’s apartment for her own and thought he was an intruder. She was fired from the department soon after the shooting.

"An ADA [assistant district attorney] has confirmed that it was, in fact, Brown who was killed, although they have yet to identify a suspect or motive for the shooting," Merritt said. "The case is now in the hands of the Dallas Police Department."