DALLAS – Amber Guyger, the former Dallas police officer who shot and killed a Black neighbor after mistakenly entering his apartment in 2018, was released from a Texas prison on parole Friday. Guyger, 38, served seven years of the 10-year sentence handed down in October 2019 for the murder of Botham Jean, 26. He left the Christina Melton Crain Unit in Gatesville on Friday. He will spend the remainder of his sentence in the community, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said. Robert L. Rogers, one of Guyger’s attorneys during the trial, could not be reached for comment this week. This month she told WFAA-TV in Dallas that she has a place to live and work after her release. “She’s been remorseful. She’s still remorseful. She’s still remorseful,” Rogers told the station. Jean, an accountant at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Dallas, was watching TV and eating ice cream in his living room the night of Sept. 6, 2018, when Guyger walked in, prosecutors said. A protester holds a sign for Botham Jean in Revere, Massachusetts, in 2020. Erin Clark / Boston Globe via GettyJean, 26, lived one floor above Guyger, who testified that he parked on the wrong floor and mistakenly entered her apartment instead of his. Guyger said he tried to use his key but the door opened. He said he shot Jean, who he believed was a thief, because he feared for his life. Guyger, a four-year veteran of the Dallas police force, was in uniform but off duty at the time. She was fired. The shooting sparked protests and renewed discourse about racial bias in policing and excessive use of force. Guyger is white and Jean was black. Guyger apologized during the trial and was hugged by Jean’s teenage brother, Brandt Jean, who said he forgave her. Botham Jean’s younger brother, Brandt Jean, hugs Guyger at the Frank Crowley Court Building in Dallas in 2019. Tom Fox / The Dallas Morning News via Getty Guyger’s release comes about two weeks after he was granted it by the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles on October 1. She was previously denied parole in September 2024. Parole was approved because she “maintained a satisfactory institutional adjustment” and participated in programs that would improve the chances of her being able to maintain stable, full-time employment after her release, the Board of Pardons and Paroles said in a statement. He also cited his lack of a “documented pattern of violent or aggressive arrests/convictions.” The Dallas County District Attorney’s Office, which opposed Guyger’s release in 2024, had no comment Thursday on his parole. On Friday, a representative for the Dallas Police Department declined to comment, referring to the force’s statement made Oct. 1 when the former officer was paroled. “Our thoughts remain with the Jean family and all those affected by their loss.” Lee Merritt, an attorney for Jean’s family, said in an Oct. 1 statement that Guyger’s sentence “was already a fraction of what was lost.” “Releasing Ms. Guyger after seven years makes that loss seem even smaller in the eyes of the system. It’s not smaller,” Merritt said. After news of Guyger’s expected release emerged, Jean’s family asked for privacy in a statement through the Botham Jean Foundation. Jean was originally from the Caribbean country of Saint Lucia. In 2021, the street where the shooting occurred, which is home to Dallas Police headquarters, was renamed Botham Jean Boulevard.
