Activists carry coffins to Dallas Cowboys game to protest fatal police shooting of Botham Jean
[griojw id=”tfQIaw9g” playerid=”x9J2bwvH”]
TheGrio has launched a special series called #BlackonBlue to examine the relationship between law enforcement and African-Americans. Our reporters and videographers will investigate police brutality and corruption while also exploring local and national efforts to improve policing in our communities. Join the conversation, or share your own story, using the hashtag #BlackonBlue.
Unrest still fills the city of Dallas following the police shooting of Botham Jean.
—Botham Jean, man killed in apartment by off duty Dallas police officer laid to rest today—
Over the weekend, protestors took to the streets to keep the pressure on the neck of prosecutors, as the cop who killed the unarmed Black man in his own home, faces manslaughter charges for the fatal shooting.
Outside of the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, during a Dallas Cowboy’s game, demonstrators pushed along empty coffins as a startling display of symbolism to protest recent police shootings. Earlier this month Jean and O’Shae Terry were both fatally shot by police in North Texas, the Daily Mail reports.
Jean family attorney, Lee Merritt, wants the cop responsible for Jean’s death, Dallas police officer Amber Guyger, charged with murder instead of manslaughter. Guyger was charged and released on bond. She has since moved from the apartment building where she shot and killed 26-year-old Jean after claiming that she mistakenly entered the wrong apartment on Sept. 6.
Jean’s mother Allison, has been a fiery advocate for her son and been a vocal critic of the Dallas police department who she said is trying to taint her son’s honorable image. Fox News reported that 10.4 grams of marijuana was found in Jean’s apartment. However, the police have yet to release Jean’s toxicology report.
“I’m calling on the Dallas officials…please come clean. Give me justice for my son because he does not deserve what he got,” she said, reported CNN.
—Attorneys for Botham Jean’s family say witnesses heard woman’s voice say ‘Let me in!’—
Merritt agreed that a warrant to search the victim’s apartment was an attempt to smear his good name and blame him for his own death—something Guyger already tried to do when she stated that he refused to follow her verbal commands.
“On the night that he was killed, the Dallas Police Department investigators were interested specifically in finding information that could help assassinate his character,” Merritt said
“Twenty-six years on this earth he lived his life without a blemish.
“It took being murdered by a Dallas police officer for Botham Jean to suddenly become a criminal.”
On Friday, Merritt and the Jean family demanded that Guyger be fired immediately.
You Might Like
