News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Mon. Sept. 24, 2018: Twenty-six-year-old Caribbean immigrant, Botham Shem Jean, who was murdered in his apartment by a Dallas Police Officer on Thursday night, September 6, 2018, is set to be buried in his homeland of St. Lucia today.
Jean’s official funeral ceremony is set for the Minor Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Castries today from 2 p.m. He is set to be laid to rest at the Choc Cemetery, also in Castries.
The body of the former Price Waterhouse Cooper employee was returned to his homeland last Friday, Sept. 21st after a funeral in Dallas, Texas on Sept. 13th and a memorial service in Brooklyn, NY on Sept. 19th.
A small coalition of local activists, known now as the “Justice For Botham team,” arranged a special welcome last Friday for the Jean family on their return home from Texas.
Police Officer Amber Guyger, the four-year department veteran who shot and killed Jean, is out on bail and remains on administrative leave, charged with manslaughter. She has since moved out of the apartment complex where she lived below Jean. She has stuck to her story that she mistakenly thought Jean’s apartment was hers, saw the door ajar and opened fire after a dark silhouette did not respond to “verbal commands, which killed the young immigrant.
Lee Merritt, a family attorney for the Jeans, however, said that neighbors of Botham Jean disputed Officer Guyger’s account of the incident.
“They heard knocking down the hallway followed by a woman’s voice that they believe to be officer Guyger saying, ‘Let me in. Let me in,’” Lee Merritt said. “One of the neighbors then heard gunshots and a man’s voice. He said what we believe to be the last words of Botham Jean which was ‘Oh my god, why did you do that?’”
A grand jury will decide the final charges against the officer and could consider charges such as murder, a first-degree felony, or the lesser charge of manslaughter, a second-degree felony, according to the Dallas District Attorney.
