Another day, another injustice. Botham Shem Jean was a black man from Saint Lucia who traveled to America to pursue a degree in accounting and information systems at Harding University. He had been living in Dallas working at PwC, an accounting and consulting firm. He was known for being a great leader, beautiful singer, and loyal friend by those who loved him. He was 26-years-old when his life was taken away from him by Officer Amber Rene Guyer on September 6, 2018. She has worked for the Dallas Police Department for four years. Jean lost his life in the most ridiculous way possible…in the comfort of his own home where he was watching a football game and texting a friend, according to The New York Times.
After working a 15- hour shift, Guyer parked on the wrong floor of the parking garage at the South Side Flats apartment complex and was a floor up from where she actually lived. She somehow got into his apartment and upon seeing him, thought he was a burglar or intruder and murdered him by shooting him in the chest. However, we know who the real intruder was, I’m thinking it’s the woman that entered an apartment that was not her own. She was the true threat towards this faultless man. There is a lot of suspicion surrounding how she entered the apartment, because there are differences between the Dallas Police Department and Texas Ranger records that show Guyer’s account of that night changed, according to DallasNews. In one account she entered Jean’s dark apartment, saw him, gave commands that were ignored and then murdered him. In another account Jean confronted Guyer at the door. Two people have reported hearing knocking and a woman saying “Let me in,” according to DallasNews. Jean was, of course, unarmed.
It’s the same narrative over and over — white officer and unarmed black person who ends up dead. Because of this cycle, Black Americans have become familiar with phrases such as “driving while black,” “shopping while black.”, “walking while black,” “barbecuing while black”, “selling lemonade while black,” etc. It’s a shame that America is still living in a racially strained climax to where Black Americans can’t simply live their lives without having the police called on them or being killed. Guyer killed Jean on Thursday but was not arrested until Sunday on a manslaughter charge. It is outrageous that it would take so long for a woman who impulsively killed an innocent man to be arrested, and to top it off she was arrested on a manslaughter charge instead of murder. To make matters even worse, a search warrant for Jean’s apartment was made public revealing that two fired cartridge casings, a metal marijuana grinder, and 10.4 grams of marijuana was found in his apartment, according to CNN. This is yet another example of how police and news outlets try to paint innocent black men as dangerous thugs to damage who they were as people and somehow make the unjustifiable death suddenly justifiable. His death, like so many others, has sparked protests among the black community.