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The Latest: Officer cries recalling night she shot neighbor

The Latest: Officer cries recalling night she shot neighbor
5 years 8 months 3 weeks ago Friday, September 27 2019 Sep 27, 2019 September 27, 2019 10:09 AM September 27, 2019 in News - AP Texas Headlines

DALLAS (AP) - The Latest on the trial of a former Dallas police officer charged in the shooting death of her neighbor inside his apartment (all times local):

10 a.m.

The former Dallas police officer who fatally shot her unarmed black neighbor in his apartment began crying and shaking on the witness stand as she started describing entering his home that night.

Amber Guyger, who is white, took the stand Friday in her murder trial in the fatal shooting last year of Botham Jean, whose apartment she said she mistook for her own.

Guyger's lips quivered and she started to cry as her lawyer questioned her about approaching Jean's door. The judge then called for a short break in the proceedings.

Guyger's attorneys have said she fired in self-defense after mistaking the 26-year-old Jean for a burglar. Prosecutors have questioned how Guyger could have missed numerous signs that she was at the wrong apartment.

Gugyer, who was off duty but in uniform at the time, was later fired.

9 a.m.

A white former Dallas police officer has taken the witness stand in her murder trial for shooting her unarmed, black neighbor in his apartment.

Amber Guyger's testimony Friday will mark the first time the public has heard directly from the 31-year-old since she shot Botham Jean last September.

Guyger's attorneys have called Jean's killing a "tragic, but innocent" mistake. They say she fired in self-defense after confusing his apartment with her own and mistaking the 26-year-old accountant from the Caribbean nation of St. Lucia for a burglar.

Prosecutors have questioned how Guyger could have missed numerous signs that she was at the wrong apartment, and suggested she was distracted by sexually explicit phone messages with her police partner.

Gugyer, who was off duty but in uniform at the time, was later fired from the force.

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