Dallas officer who fatally shot man in his own apartment charged with manslaughter

A Dallas police officer has been charged with manslaughter after fatally shooting her neighbor in his own home.

Officer Amber Guyger, 30, was arrested and charged Sunday and released that evening on $300,000 bail, three days after the shooting occurred, according to The New York Times.

{mosads}Guyger, who is white, returned to what she says she believed to be her apartment Thursday night, but mistakenly entered her neighbor’s unit. The neighbor, 26-year-old Botham Jean, is black.

Guyger says she believed Jean to be an intruder and shot him. He was pronounced dead Thursday night at a Dallas hospital.

Lee Merritt, a lawyer for Jean’s family, suggested that authorities inappropriately delayed charging Guyger because she is a police officer.

“We don’t want it lost on anyone that, had this been a regular citizen, [Guyger] would have never left the crime scene,” Merritt said.

Jean’s death has sparked calls for justice nationwide and reignited the conversation around police brutality and racial tensions.

Another lawyer for Jean’s family said at a press conference that he was unarmed when Guyger entered the apartment.

“You know, we’re still dealing in an America where black people are being killed in some of the most arbitrary ways: Driving while black, walking while black — and now, we have to add living while black,” Ben Crump said, according to the Times.