Joshua Brown, key witness in Amber Guyger murder trial, shot and killed
DALLAS (AP) — A witness in the murder trial of a white Dallas police officer who fatally shot her black neighbor has been killed in a shooting.
Joshua Brown, who lived in the same apartment complex as Amber Guyger and Botham Jean, was shot and killed Friday in Dallas. Guyger was still in her police uniform after a long shift when, according to her trial testimony, she mistook Jean’s apartment for her own one floor below and shot him after pushing open his unlocked door and thinking he was a burglar.
Brown, 28, testified in Guyger’s trial about the September 2018 night that Jean was killed, saying he was in a hallway on the fourth floor, where he and Jean lived. He said he heard what sounded like “two people meeting by surprise” and then two gunshots.
Brown, who became emotional at times and used his T-shirt and tissue to wipe his tears, said he had met Jean, a 26-year-old accountant from the Caribbean island nation of St. Lucia, for the first time earlier that day.
In this Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2019, file photo, Joshua Brown, a neighbor of victim Botham Jean, is overcome with emotion while giving testimony in court (Credit: Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News via AP, Pool, File)
Guyger, 31, was fired from the department soon after the shooting. She was convicted Tuesday and sentenced the next day to 10 years in prison.
Police responded to the shooting shortly after 10:30 p.m. Friday at an apartment complex different from the one where Jean was killed. Authorities said several witnesses flagged officers down when they arrived and directed them to an apartment parking lot where the man who was shot was lying on the ground with multiple gunshot wounds.
The man was taken to a hospital, where he died.
Witnesses told police they heard several gunshots and saw a silver four-door sedan speeding out of the parking lot.
Botham Jean with his mother Allison Jean (Credit: Jean family)
Lee Merritt, a lawyer for the Jean family, said in a tweet Saturday that he spoke with Brown’s mother and that she is “devastated.”
“We all are,” Merritt said. “Joshua Brown was a key witness in the murder of Botham Jean that helped put Amber Guyger away. We need answers.”
In a statement he included with the tweet, he said authorities have not identified a suspect or determined a motive.
“Brown deserves the same justice he sought to ensure the Jean family,” Merritt said in the statement.
Dallas County prosecutor Jason Hermus said Brown “bravely came forward to testify when others wouldn’t,” according to the newspaper.
“If we had more people like him, we would have a better world,” said Hermus, who was lead prosecutor in the case.