Murder trial begins for former Dallas cop who shot black man in his own home

DALLAS (Reuters) – A former off-duty Dallas police officer faces trial on murder charges on Monday after she shot and killed a black neighbor last year in his apartment, saying she entered it by mistake and thought he was a burglar.

Then-officer Amber Guyger, who is white, has told investigators in Texas that she mistook Botham Jean, 26, who is black, for an intruder, after she mistakenly entered his central Dallas apartment one floor above hers and he appeared in the darkness.

The shooting, one of a series of high-profile killings of unarmed black men and teens by white U.S. police, sparked street protests, particularly because prosecutors initially moved to charge Guyger, 31, with manslaughter, a charge for killing without malice that carries a lesser sentence than murder.

In contrast to high-profile cases like the killings of Michael Brown in Missouri and Philando Castile in Minnesota, Guyger shot Jean, a PwC accountant, while she was off duty, rather than while responding to a reported crime.

The district attorney’s office reexamined the case after the protests and a grand jury in late November indicted the former police officer on murder, with the maximum punishment being life in prison.

She has remained free on bond.

Guyger, who had been on the force for over four years, walked into Jean’s apartment after returning from a work shift and was able to enter it because Jean’s door was slightly ajar, according to Texas law enforcement officials.

After the incident, she was initially placed on administrative leave but was fired days later, with the Dallas police chief citing her actions on the night she shot Jean and afterward.

District Judge Tammy Kemp has imposed a gag order in the criminal trial – meaning no one involved with the case can speak publicly about it.

Guyger’s defense had pushed for a change of venue, arguing in court last week that media coverage had been so intense their defendant could not get a fair trial, but Kemp denied that request.

Calls to Guyger’s defense attorney were not returned.

(Reporting by Bruce Tamaso in Dallas; Additional reporting and writing by Brad Brooks in Austin; Editing by Scott Malone and Bernadette Baum)

British police sift through rubble at scene of fatal blast

Members of the emergency services move debris at the site of an explosion which destroyed a convenience store and a home in Leicester, Britain, February 25, 2018. REUTERS/Darren Staples

By Darren Staples

LEICESTER, England (Reuters) – British police searched for survivors on Monday in the rubble of a shop and apartment destroyed by an explosion that killed at least five people and injured five others in the city of Leicester on Sunday evening.

CCTV footage posted on the local newspaper’s website showed the entire front of the building shooting into the road as a car passed. The scene was then engulfed in fire.

The Leicester Mercury said the shop was a Polish convenience store called Zabka Leicester and above it was a two-story apartment.

Police and the fire service said it would take time to establish what caused the explosion but that there was no immediate indication it was linked to terrorism.

“There are still pockets of fire in the basement area of the building,” said Matt Crane of Leicestershire Fire Service.

“We have a significant number of specialist search and rescue teams who are supported by two search dogs.”

Five people were taken to hospital, one of whom remains in a critical condition, police said.

Salvage crews work at the scene of a convenience store and home that were destroyed by an explosion in Leicester, Britain, February 26, 2018. REUTERS/Darren Staples

Salvage crews work at the scene of a convenience store and home that were destroyed by an explosion in Leicester, Britain, February 26, 2018. REUTERS/Darren Staples

Local resident Harrish Patni told Sky News: “We heard this massive explosion, the shop window six doors away vibrated and we thought it can’t be a car accident, it didn’t sound like a crash.

“We came outside and there was a big cloud of smoke, bricks all across the road.”

Leicester, in the center of England, has long been one of Britain’s most culturally diverse cities, with a large population of people from the Asian subcontinent and many other ethnicities.

(Additional reporting by Andrew MacAskill and Kanishka Singh; Editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Catherine Evans)