City of Dallas Dismissed from Suit over Fatal Shooting by Off-Duty Officer

A federal judge has ruled the city of Dallas is not liable for an off-duty police officer fatally shooting a man in his own apartment last year.

U.S. District Judge Barbara Lynn dismissed the city from civil lawsuit that the family of Botham Jean brought after the 26-year-old was killed by Amber Guyger.

The ruling leaves the 31-year-old former officer as the sole defendant in the suit, which argues she used excessive force and that better police training could have prevented Jean’s death. It makes a large financial settlement unlikely.

In her brief ruling, Lynn wrote that she was upholding a magistrate judge’s decision and dismissing the city because the suit failed “to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.”

Guyger was found guilty of murder for Jean’s death and sentenced to a decade in prison in October. She testified at trial that she mistook Jean’s apartment for her own on the floor below and thought he was an intruder.

Jean, an accountant from the Caribbean island nation of St. Lucia, had been eating a bowl of ice cream when Guyger entered his home and shot him.

His death drew national attention for its unusual circumstances and as one of several prominent killings of black men by white police officers.

A lawyer for Jean’s family did not immediately respond to a request for comment.