Another detail shared by residents of the apartment complex where this happened is that when you put your key in the wrong door, you get a red error light. So if she did put her key in the open door, she should have seen that red light and been alerted to her error.
I actually believed what I was hearing before I read the affidavit. Now, the story just isn’t adding up.
Agreed, but we should also recognize that we don’t have many facts to go on. For instance, none of us even knows for sure if the door had a deadbolt (which could have been used to keep the door propped open); if the key was an electronic card or a physical metal key; if there (as some reports indicate) was an electronic touchpad that would open the door upon the entering of a code; where exactly in the apartment Jean was shot; the character and credibility of any earwitnesses; whether in fact there had been noise complaints; and about a million other potentially useful pieces of information. Is there even a link anywhere to her actual affidavit?
The jury will have a whole lot more information to determine guilt.
Yes, the jury will have more info.
The link to the arrest affidavit was posted earlier in the thread. You can probably google and find it fairly quickly. It tells the officer’s version of events.
Information about how the doors work is being shared by residents of the apartment complex.
If the door was propped open by a deadbolt, it doesn’t make sense that she would stick her key in.
If any of you are on FB, Shaun King has an excellent Fb live broadcast where he details the differences between the officer’s original statement and what she is stating now. I don’t normally follow him, but he has done a great job analyzing problems with this case.
Ok…what am I missing. This woman shot and killed a person who was in their own apartment. I can’t think of any possible reason to do,this unless he pulled a gun on her. That hasn’t been said.
She killed an innocent person.
What else is there to say?
@jazzymomof7 - I’ve seen the affidavit of the arresting officer, which can be googled under “Amber Guyger Affidavit pdf” (links to DocumentCloud are not possible). BTW, the facts as recited there imply that she shot Jean from outside the apartment (“Guyger fired her handgun two time…then entered the apartment, immediately called 911…”).
I thought that she had actually signed a statement, but perhaps I was mistaken. So, we do not have her sworn version of events, only what a police officer says that she said?
About the lock, the affidavit says that the door was ajar and that it opened from the attempt to insert a (nonfitting) key that had a “chip”. News reports have said that the apartments could be accessed through touchpads upon the entering of a code as well as by a traditional key. But if that was true, then why would anyone believe that she needed to demand to be let in? Could the code be reprogrammed? Was there a deadbolt? Are the reports true that the doors are heavy and close automatically?
This was a new building, built within the last 3 years and high tech. Is there surveillance video of the parking structure? Of the common areas and hallways? Surveillance is dirt cheap, so I would guess there is.
I agree that if the door was propped open, then she would not have needed to insert her key. But if it weren’t somehow propped open, then Jean would have had to come to the door to open it to Guyger. Their encounter then would have been at very close quarters, likely within inches. Is it believable that she simply blasted away after demanding the door be opened and after Jean apparently did so? There would have been plenty of time for both parties to assess the situation in that case. It goes back to my initial guess: this might have been some sort of struggle at the threshold of the door.
Again, the main point is that we have all sorts of potentially conflicting information. It’s best to dissect the information as it comes out, note the questions, but wait to form a final opinion.
You can see from pictures of his door that there is no keypad. Also, it wouldn’t be very difficult to tell if his injury was sustained from close range or from a longer distance, as apparently suggested by the police officer.
Here was the initial reporting that there was a keypad:
Note that the lawyers for the family of the victim are saying that there was no way the door was left open:
Of course, the family lawyers are also pushing the narrative that the officer was banging on the door, so it must have been closed. And so Jean must have opened it.
I don’t know whether or not she has given a sworn, signed statement.
Some residents have posted video footage of their doors. They are heavy doors that swing shut when left open.
If you scroll down to the middle of this article, there’s a short clip of a resident showing how the doors close automatically.
https://newsone.com/3826088/amber-guyger-botham-jean-dallas-texas/
She is lying. I’ve seen two videos showing how the doors automatically close and how you get a green light when you insert your key. There is no way in hell the door was ajar then under the weight of her key she pushed the door open.
Let me add that it doesn’t help that she had pics on social media posing with friend/family member throwing up the white power sign.
Very helpful video of the door, and it looks consistent with the door that has been shown with the red mat in front of it.
You can see that there is a deadbolt at the top. And I can’t see any keypad.
So, clearly the statement written down by the officer is at least incomplete, if not outright misleading. I guess the deadbolt could have been extended and the door still ajar if, as speculated early on, Jean was expecting someone. It is also possible that Jean’s door specifically had some sort of mechanical issue with the return spring or a misalignment of the plates that could have prevented complete closure. No doubt this is all being investigated.
If not, then the door must have been opened by Jean and the encounter was at close range. Lots of questions!
Looking at the video of the door it seems it would be extremely difficult for her to have shot him from outside of the door as the affidavit states.
She stuck her key in the lock, and it pushed the heavy door open wide enough for her to see a figure standing in the dark a ways off. As she was shouting demands and preparing to shoot, wouldn’t the door have been closing, possibly even slamming shut and locking her out? I find her version of the story very difficult to believe.
Yes, sounds more likely that she banged on the door, he opened it, she got scared and shot.
She’s has changed her story so many times, that anything she says is difficult to believe.
^Maybe, but she had plenty of time to prepare for the door to be opened (while banging). If she thought someone was in her apartment, she would have taken up a defensive position. Also, how scared could she have been if she thought there was a burglar in her apartment and yet she still demanded that the door be opened? If she was banging and demanding that the door be opened, why would Jean have opened it? Did he look through the peephole and ask what was going on before opening? Like I said, this is a real head scratcher.
Someone shows a video of a door being released with it’s full force and you think every time it’s closed it works the exact same way? What if the door was gently closed instead of allowed to slam shut? How do you know that it wouldn’t remain slightly ajar? I’ve certainly lived in apartments where that was the case. More importantly, don’t you think she would know if it was impossible to leave the door ajar before claiming it was?
Great point. That would tend to support the officer’s statement (as relayed by the arresting officer). My gut tells me that is what happened. She barely entered the apartment, it was dark, she saw a shadowy figure that she wasn’t expecting, she panicked, grabbed her weapon, yelled to freeze, and then shot.
I find the reports of banging on the door and demanding to be let in to be a bit unbelievable, unless the forensics supports a shooting at close range.
I don’t know what happened, but her initial statement said she was banging on the door because she couldn’t get her key to work, after trying several times. She must have realized how idiotic that sounded so now she’s saying the door was open or slightly ajar and she was so startled to see him coming at her that she shot him. Also doesn’t make sense but she’s scrambling for something defensible.
I’d believe the first story, just because it was first. She’d have to be really convincing as to why she so drastically changed her story to get past that.
Also, how dark could it be? I always turn on my hall light when I answer the door at night (and it’s always my friend there anyway).
Can anyone link to that? I haven’t seen that statement.
I’m not aware of her making multiple statements. That doesn’t mean a bunch of “witnesses” or posters haven’t attributed multiple statements to her. But that’s not quite the same thing, now is it? 