Now the killer is saying she gave “verbal commands” and the victim didn’t obey them.
And this is the perfect illustration of why this defense is bad in this case and in other cases. The way these scenarios often unfold, and the way this one probably unfolded, was the police officer screaming something and then immediately shooting.
When a normal person hears someone screaming out of the blue, they’re startled. They might not realize the screaming is aimed at them, especially if they were doing nothing out of the ordinary. They’re going to take a while to process the situation. It’s not reasonable to expect instant obedience to screaming.
@Cardinal Fang: By now the officer has defense counsel.
I do not know, but I am guessing that the officer & her attorney are fighting for a plea deal of less than 10 years.
Most realize that some jurors will never convict an officer of the law.
This case is best handled by a plea bargain & a settlement with the deceased’s family & implementation of maximum work hours not to exceed 10 hour shifts including lunch or dinner or breakfast breaks. The job of a police officer is just too stressful.
It the reporting is accurate she is changing her story. This is what makes me mad, we have to have a spotless record, character, and then just maybe we will get justice. If he has any blemish is his past you can bet people would be bending over backwards to offer reasons as to why she should’ve shot him. If shouldn’t matter what the person’s background is since he was in HIS OWN apt.
@partyof5, the report below is the first one I’ve read where her side of the story is detailed (in the arrest warrant affadavit). What other versions of her side of the story have been published?
Her story makes sense. But if an innocent person can’t respond to her “verbal commands” and therefore gets shot, something is wrong with the verbal commands and the subsequent choice to shoot. What is the point of the verbal commands, if not to give the person a chance not to be shot?
PUTYOURHANDSUPBANGBANG is giving a verbal command and then shooting, but it’s not giving the person time to obey the verbal command. And in videos of police shooting we’ve seen that sort of thing over and over.
In the dark (probably where neither could clearly see the other as anything but a moving shape in the dark), both surprised, both probably close to bedtime… Guyget, already erroneously thinking “burglary in progress”, may have had an unreasonable expectation of quick compliance from Jean, who may have had difficulty knowing what was going on in the situation.
@Nrdsb4 I don’t remember where I saw story that she tried to open the door, that’s why I couched my statement “if reporting is accurate”. There are so many versions before the truth comes out.
Her story is very “convenient “ especially since he is not here to give his side.
And now there’s this: ( from a huff P.O. article but reported multiple places “The officer said that she was able to enter the apartment because the door was slightly ajar and that she initially believed she was in her own apartment. The attorney representing Jean’s family, Lee Merritt, told local TV station CBS 11 there are two witnesses who contradict Guyger’s statement to the Rangers.
According to Merritt, the witnesses said they heard a woman knocking on the door before the shooting and saying, “Let me in.”
The affidavit that was posted above only leaves me with more questions.
If the door was slightly ajar, why did she stick her key in the lock?
If it was so dark that she didn’t know she was in the wrong apartment, how could she properly evaluate the victim’s response to her commands and how did she get such an accurate shot?
Also, she said she began giving aid, turned on the light because it was dark, and called 911. Then, when 911 asked for the address she went to the door to look at the number and realized she was in the wrong apartment. If she really thought she was in her own apartment, wouldn’t she have given the 911 operator her address instead of going to look at the number on the door?
We had a drunk guy enter our apartment when we were in college, so I know it happens, but the story here isn’t adding up. She may be telling the truth about having accidently gone to the wrong apartment, but I don’t buy her story about what happened next.
I also saw a press conference from the Jean family’s attorneys that raised additional questions. They say they have multiple witnesses saying they heard pounding on the door and shouts of, “let me in, let me in,” followed by shots.
It also concerns me that all of this is supposedly the result of her being exhausted from a long shift. If she was so exhausted that she entered the wrong apartment and continued to make faulty decisions that resulted in fatality, then those in the city of Dallas were in danger during the tail end of her shift. She should not have been working if her judgment was so severely compromised.
Thank goodness there are people who heard. The lady who posted the post-shooting video said the hallways carry sound. I hope the next door neighbor Mr. Jean helped move in heard something.
Going back to the POTUS commenting on the police officer and Skip Gates, situation is similar and could have resulted in a shooting. Dr. Gates was using his key to open his own difficult front lock. Right place, right time, but it could have gone wrong. The officer questioned Dr. Gates and demanded ID even after walking past multiple brag wall photos of Dr. Gates with dignitaries and celebrities. He still had to prove he “belonged”.
I was in Minnesota a few months ago and was driving a rental car. I dropped off my drunk cousin at a store to grab something real quick and circled around until she came out.
She tried getting into another car that looked similar to the rental. Luckily, the people inside gently told her that this was not the car she was looking for.
My heart hurts to think that she could’ve ended up dead from that simple mistake. (Although unlikely since she’s a small, white, blonde female.)
Does the officer live alone? Also, based on Mr. Jean stellar background and helpful nature, I could see him actually opening the door for a female officer, thinking she needed help and knowing he did nothing wrong. I wonder how close he was to the door when he was shot. More questions.
It’s not unheard of for people who know they are likely to be charged with a crime to use the time between the incident and the arrest to receive expert advice about how to present their version of events. This is an advantage not usually made available to the “run-of-the-mill” defendant.
By the time the lights were on, she had the ability to see from her surroundings that she was not in fact in her own apartment. I don’t find the above to indicate anything sinister. It’s totally believable that she thought she was at her own apartment, at first. It’s the rest of the story that becomes tragic and more difficult to defend.
I predict a very aggressive defense and no jail time.
If you came home exhausted, wandered into a cop’s apartment, and killed her, you might not even survive the beating that would come as you “resisted arrest”.