Ex-Dallas cop Amber Guyger indicted on murder charge

A grand jury in Dallas indicted a former police officer Friday on a murder charge in the September shooting death of her unarmed neighbor, who was shot and killed in his apartment, according to multiple reports.

Authorities initially arrested Amber Guyger, 30, on a manslaughter charge after she shot and killed Botham Shen Jean, 26, on Sept. 6, officials said. Guyger was a police officer at the time, but she was off-duty when she walked into Jean’s apartment, according to authorities. She told investigators she mistook Jean’s apartment for her own.

Guyger was indicted Friday after grand jurors heard evidence earlier this week, The Dallas Morning News reported.

In an affidavit, Guyger said she found the apartment door slightly ajar and unlocked after returning home from a shift. The lights were off inside the apartment and when she saw a figure in the darkness, she apparently mistook it for an intruder, according to the officer’s account.

Guyger was dismissed from the department a few weeks after the shooting. An internal affairs investigation found she “engaged in adverse conduct when she was arrested for manslaughter” on Sept. 9.

Guyger joined the Dallas Police Department in November 2013.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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