Dallas Officer Walks Into Wrong Apartment Thinking It Was Her Own, Kills Man Inside

A Dallas man died late Thursday after a police officer returning home from her shift entered the wrong apartment and shot the 26-year-old.

Botham Shem Jean, a native of St. Lucia, was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead, according to NBC News.

“He did no one any wrong,” his mother, Allie Jean, said in a phone interview from her home in St. Lucia, adding that the family is stunned to hear about his death, according to the NBC News report.

In a statement, Dallas police said that the officer arrived home at about 10 p.m. in full uniform after working a full shift but entered the victim’s apartment believing it was her own. The incident took place at the South Side Flats, an upscale apartment complex directly south of Dallas’ downtown. The officer was not injured.

“At some point, the officer fired her weapon striking the victim,” the police statement reads.

The officer, who has not immediately been identified, has been placed on administrative leave during the investigation, NBC News reported. Sgt. Warren Mitchell said police have yet to interview the officer, adding he would not speculate as to whether she mistakenly entered another apartment and believed the man already inside was an intruder.

“We still have a lot to do in this investigation,” Mitchell said, as quoted by NBC News.

Allie Jean said her son was a trusting man who lived in a gated apartment complex where he felt safe, questioning what could have happened to escalate the situation.

“Somebody has to be crazy not to realize that they walked into the wrong apartment,” Allie Jean said. “He’s a bachelor. Things are different inside.”

Botham Jean, nicknamed Bo, was a top student in St. Lucia and loved the church, where he served as a song leader, his mother said. He graduated with a degree in accounting from the Harding University in Arkansas in 2016 and stayed in the U.S. after getting an internship at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Dallas, where he worked in the risk assurance department, as per the NBC News report.

A report by the St. Lucia Times suggests that Jean came from a prominent family in the Caribbean nation, mentioning that some of his family members, including his mother, are government officials. Family and friends have taken to social media to mourn the death of their loved one.

“I love you to the moon and back…rest in eternal peace my baby,” Earl Jean wrote in a Facebook post.