Dallas police officer accused in neighbour's death fired

Flowers are placed at the front door apartment of Botham Jean who was shot September 6 by off-duty Dallas police officer Amber Guyger, who says she mistook his apartment for hers. Photo / AP

A white police officer accused of fatally shooting her black neighbour inside his own apartment was fired on Monday for "adverse conduct," the Dallas Police Department said in a statement.

Police Chief U. Renee Hall dismissed Officer Amber Guyger during a hearing Monday, according to the statement posted on Twitter.

Guyger has been charged with manslaughter in the September 6 shooting that left 26-year-old Botham Jean dead. Court records show Guyger said she thought she had encountered a burglar inside her own home. She turned herself in three days later and is currently out on bail.

pic.twitter.com/Bvt4ixHGsl

— Dallas Police Dept (@DallasPD) September 24, 2018

"An Internal Affairs investigation concluded that on September 9, 2018, Officer Guyger #10702, engaged in adverse conduct when she was arrested for Manslaughter," the statement said. It doesn't explain what that violation means.

Jean family attorneys and protesters have been calling for her to be fired since the shooting. The family did not immediately comment on Guyger's dismissal.

Guyger was a four-year veteran of the police force. She told investigators that she had just ended a shift when she returned in uniform to the South Side Flats apartment complex where she lived.

She said when she put her key in the apartment door, which was unlocked and slightly ajar, it opened, according to the affidavit. Inside, the lights were off, and she saw a figure in the darkness that cast a large silhouette across the room, according to the officer's account.

She called 911. When asked where she was, she returned to the front door to see she was in the wrong unit, according to the affidavit. The 911 tapes have not been released.

- AP