Prosecutor: Dallas officer’s testimony ‘absurd,’ ‘garbage’

Fired Dallas police Officer Amber Guyger becomes emotional on the stand as the defense begins their case in her murder trial in the 204th District Court at the Frank Crowley Courts Building in Dallas, Friday, September 27, 2019. Guyger shot and killed Botham Jean, an unarmed 26-year-old neighbor in his own apartment last year. She told police she thought his apartment was her own and that he was an intruder. (Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News/Pool) Fired Dallas police Officer Amber Guyger becomes emotional on the stand as the defense begins their case in her murder trial in the 204th District Court at the Frank Crowley Courts Building in Dallas, Friday, September 27, 2019. Guyger shot and killed Botham Jean, an unarmed 26-year-old neighbor in his own apartment last year. She told police she thought his apartment was her own and that he was an intruder. (Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News/Pool)

By Associated Press September 30, 2019 2 min read

DALLAS (AP) — A Dallas police officer’s claim that she believed she was in her own apartment when she fatally shot a neighbor in his home is absurd, a prosecutor said during closing arguments at the officer’s murder trial Monday.

Assistant District Attorney Jason Fine said Monday that Amber Guyger was “an intruder” in Botham Jean’s home when she killed him last September.

Guyger tearfully testified last week that she mistook Jean’s apartment for her own after a long shift. Speaking publicly for the first time about the events of that night, she said she feared someone had broken in and that she opened fire using her service weapon when a silhouetted figure walked toward her in the dark apartment.

Guyger should have known she was in the wrong apartment, Fine said Monday, calling her claims “absurd” and “garbage.”

“It’s not a mistake. It’s a series of unreasonable decisions,” Fine said.