Amber Guyger, the Dallas police officer who was off duty when she killed her neighbor, Botham Jean, in his own apartment, was fired by Dallas Police Chief Renee Hall on Monday morning.
In a statement released on Twitter, the department concluded that Guyger “engaged in adverse behavior” after she shot and killed Jean. She turned herself in on Sept. 9 and was charged with manslaughter.
She was terminated after a hearing by the department’s internal affairs bureau Monday morning.
Despite Guyger’s firing, the spotlight has been on Jean since the beginning of the investigation. Guyger initially stated that she mistook Jean’s apartment for her own, and when she entered, she saw Jean as an intruder.
She was charged three days later. She then claimed that Jean ignored her “verbal commands” before she shot him. She then called 911. Jean died in the hospital.
But even after Guyger was charged, her fellow officers continued to “smear” Jean’s name, according to attorney Lee Merritt, who represents Jean’s family. They released a search warrant affidavit that included details about marijuana found in Jean’s home, which some news outlets latched onto.
The seizure was “nothing but a disgusting attempt to assassinate his character now that they have assassinated his person,” said Benjamin Crump, another attorney representing Jean’s family.
David Menschel, an Oregon-based criminal defense attorney and activist, previously told HuffPost that the release of the search warrant was “propaganda.”
“An off-duty cop goes into the wrong apartment and shoots the man who lives there dead, and so, as we’ve come to expect, local law enforcement is doing what it can to cast aspersions at the innocent victim ― to suggest he was ‘no angel’ ― and therefore apparently deserved to be shot dead in his own home,” Menschel said. “And much of the media plays along, amplifying law enforcement’s propaganda.”
After she was charged, Guyger was freed from jail on a $300,000 bond. A hearing date has not yet been set.
This story has been updated with more background information.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story referred to a sentencing date. That reference was to a hearing date, and the story has been updated to reflect this.