The discussion will be held at City Hall, Castries Constituency Council

(PRESS RELEASE) — A unique opportunity has been presented to the public and they are being called on to engage in dialogue on citizen security with the Regional Security System (RSS) and local law enforcement officials on Friday, September 20, 2019, at City Hall in Castries from 10:30 a.m.

The RSS, in collaboration with the Department of Home Affairs and National Security and the Royal Saint Lucia Police Force (RSLPF), will jointly host the panel discussion on the topic “Transitioning the Police from a State-Centered Approach to a Citizen-Oriented Approach to Security “.

The forum has been purposefully designed so that the public, including persons from various organizations, may feel free to walk in, participate and contribute positively to the discussion.

The panel discussion is made possible through the RSS 10th EDF Programme of Activities and seeks to contribute towards capacity-building and institutional responses to crime including the illicit trafficking of drugs.

Public support for law enforcement initiatives and understanding of other key social dynamics is expected to be bolstered through an ongoing public awareness campaign which is being led by the Regional Security System (RSS).

Similar discussions have been hosted in other islands drawing successful reviews. The dialogue in Saint Lucia will be the final edition of a series around the region and will hopefully culminate on a high note.

All specially invited guests are to note that your presence will be highly appreciated at this function.

Once again the Regional Security System is inviting the Saint Lucia public to turn out in great numbers to make this event meaningful through participation and organizers are hoping to attract diverse voices that are representative of various sectors of the society.

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This photo is not an actual photo of the body mentioned in story.

Police are investigating the discovery of a headless and decomposed body in a river in Grace, Vieux Fort.

The body, which appears to be that of a male was discovered in an “advanced state” of decomposition, a senior law enforcement source told St. Lucia News Online.

The body was discovered “one mile upstream” of the Grace Intake in Vieux Fort, the Water and Sewerage Company Inc (WASCO) said in a news release on Friday afternoon.

It was not immediately clear if death resulted from foul play. And our newsroom has not yet received official confirmation that the corpse’s head was found.

WASCO said the discovery was made late Thursday afternoon by an unknown individual and the body was removed Friday morning.

“Local police were summoned and immediately commenced a search of the area. The search was subsequently called off, around 8pm due to poor visibility in the area, but lawmen recommenced the search early Friday morning,” WASCO stated in the release.

WASCO further stated that according to reports received, “a decapitated body was fished out of the river by local police on Friday and investigations into the circumstances surrounding the demise of the individual are ongoing”.

In the meantime, the water company assures the public that the water in that area is safe for consumption.

“While the public awaits the outcome of the police investigation, WASCO remains acutely aware of the level of public concern over the safety of the water drawn from the grace intake, given the latest development. We therefore take the opportunity to assure the public that WASCO operates within the strictest safety standards set by the World Health Organization (WHO),” the release stated.

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(PRESS RELEASE) — The management of the Water and Sewerage Company Inc Wasco has received news that a body was discovered approximately one mile upstream of the Grace Intake in Vieux Fort.

The discovery was made late Thursday afternoon by an unknown individual. Local police were summoned and immediately commenced a search of the area. The search was subsequently called off, around 8pm due to poor visibility in the area, but lawmen recommenced the search early Friday morning.

According to the reports received by WASCO officials, a decapitated body was fished out of the river by local police on Friday and investigations into the circumstances surrounding the demise of the individual are ongoing.

While the public awaits the outcome of the police investigation, WASCO remains acutely aware of the level of public concern over the safety of the water drawn from the grace intake, given the latest development. We therefore take the opportunity to assure the public that WASCO operates within the strictest safety standards set by the World Health Organization (WHO.)

We also wish to further inform the general public that upon receiving news of the discovery of the corpse in the area on Thursday, immediate action was taken to shut down the raw water line supplying the Grace Treatment Plant.
While we cannot be certain how long the corpse may have been in the water source, lab test results from for the Grace Intake confirm the absence of contaminants in the water supply. Results from water samples from July, August and September have registered negative for Coliform, Faecal Coliform and Faecal Streptococci. Similarly, test results from samples taken from the distribution line in Grace have turned up negative for contaminants.

Based on the test results WASCO is confident that the quality of water to consumers in Grace has not been compromised. WASCO further assures the public that water drawn from all our sources is put through several stages of treatment and testing to ensure that it is safe for public consumption.

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Acting on advice from her employers, a Saint Lucian woman working as a waitress at a local hotel has made an indecent assault report against a British couple, sources said.

According to sources, the hotel employee has accused the couple of slapping her buttocks.

The incident reportedly occurred at the hotel.

Police are investigating the report.

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Nicholas Jn Louis

Police are investigating a homicide in La Ressource, Dennery that occurred Friday evening, Sept. 20.

According to reports, the incident involves a fatal shooting that occurred between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m.

The victim has been identified as Nicholas Jn Louis, who is believed to be in his late teens or early 20s.

A source told St. Lucia News Online that Jn Louis “was sitting on a bench in his father’s yard with two other people and the guy (the shooter) walked up to them, looked at him (Raymond), pulled out the gun and fired off four shots. He lifted his finger off the trigger for a second and fired off three more shots”.

According to the source, no one was else was injured.

The source further alleged that Jn Louis “wasn’t fighting or anything. He is not known to be in any gang or anything”.

Jn Louis

This is the second fatal shooting in La Ressource in just over a month.

Odsan resident, 33-year-old Kim Gustave, aka ‘Fat Boy’, was reportedly shot in the forehead at point-blank range by a lone male individual during a Jouvert event, around 5 a.m. on Saturday, August 10. He was pronounced dead on the scene.

To date, no one has been arrested in connection with the killing of Gustave who was known to police.

Kim Gustave

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Botham Jean (left) and Amber Guyger (far right)

(FOX4) — The parents of a man killed by a fired Dallas police officer are reportedly anxious about the upcoming murder trial.

Dallas County District Attorney John Crueuzot met with Botham Jean’s family from St. Lucia Thursday.

He said he tried to help them understand the American legal process and how the trial against Amber Guyger will proceed.

Guyger shot and killed Jean last year in his own apartment. She told police she mistook his apartment for hers and thought he was an intruder.

Cruezot said he also assured Jean’s parents that they have the support of the local community.

He explained how nervous Jean’s parents are about the case.

“I mean, it’s a sobering event, obviously, and a sad event. And they have anxiety about this and the trial coming up. I mean, we’re there now, virtually. And they’re going to hear the trial in regard to their son’s death. And how it’ll come out, we can’t promise them,” Creuzot said.

Guyger’s trial is scheduled to begin Monday morning.

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Relatives of Botham Jean. Botham’s mother, Allison Jean, is second to the right in the photo taken by CNN’s Allison V. Smith.

(CNN) — Seven months after an off-duty Dallas police officer shot Allison Jean’s son, Botham, dead in his apartment, her attorney called with a warning: the 911 call capturing Botham’s last moments was going to be played on the evening news.

Jean was on a business trip in Washington, DC, alone in her hotel room. She didn’t want to have nightmares, so she waited until the next morning to listen to the recording online.

The white officer who shot Botham, Amber Guyger, told authorities 19 times during the call that she believed she was entering her own apartment, which was one floor below, and that the 26-year-old unarmed black man was an intruder.

As Jean listened to the 911 call in an empty conference room, she felt an anger that surprised her. She couldn’t hear anyone helping Botham as he lay dying in his own home. “He was really treated like an animal,” Jean said. In that moment in April, she realized she wasn’t ready for the murder trial.

Ever since then, Allison Jean has been preparing herself to face her son’s killer. That day will come this week, with opening statements and testimony.

Guyger has pleaded not guilty to murder; her attorney has called the shooting “a terrible tragedy that resulted from a true mistake.” If convicted, the fired officer faces up to life in prison. Her attorney has declined further comment, citing a gag order.

Botham Jean (left) and Amber Guyger

To prepare for the trial, Jean, 52, has attended therapy in St. Lucia where she lives and where Botham grew up. She has turned to prayer and fasting to strengthen her spiritually. Her therapist and attorney have tried to walk her through what to expect during the trial, and ways she can cope if it gets overwhelming. Her experience provides a window into what families of crime victims go through as they face those accused of killing their loved ones.

“My hope for the trial is for my son to get justice … that the person who inflicted harm on him gets punished for the crime that she committed,” Jean said.

Painful to say Botham’s name Botham liked to call his mother “GG” — short for Governor General, the title given to Queen Elizabeth II’s representative in Commonwealth countries. He was always telling his mother to look on the bright side of life, and she said his positive attitude encouraged her.

An accountant at PricewaterhouseCoopers, Botham would always take care to dress well, and encouraged her to do the same, she remembered. “You know you have to look the part,” he would say.

He was her middle child, full of energy like the English cricket player he was named after, Sir Ian Botham. Jean gave him a middle name from the Bible — Shem, who was one of Noah’s sons — and Botham grew up to be a man of faith. He grew up in the Church of Christ, led worship services at Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas, which he graduated from in 2016, and sang with the Good News Singers, a spiritual a capella group on campus. He was dedicated to charity work, and after his death, his family established a foundation to support community organizations he cared about.

On the night Botham was killed last September, Jean was visiting her daughter, Allisa Findley, 37, in New York. A social worker at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas called Findley to say that Botham had been shot through the heart and died. She woke up her mother, trembling.

Jean sobbed in disbelief. She had just said a prayer for the protection of her three children. How could Botham be dead?

She flew to Dallas. For days after the shooting, she couldn’t eat a full meal. “I was having grapes, morning, noon and night,” said Jean.

She would forget to brush her teeth. She left her iPad at an airport. She felt like she was losing her memory. She saw a therapist before she left Dallas, then found another in St. Lucia after returning home.

Jean realized she didn’t want to confront Botham’s death, so much that she could barely bring herself to use certain words. “It was difficult for me to say words like ‘die’ and ‘death’ and ‘kill’ and ‘murder,” she said.

She couldn’t bring herself to say Botham’s name on some days. And Guyger’s name, either.

“That was, for me, the most difficult part … having to say his name, say her name, say what happened. It’s still very, very difficult,” she said.

Her therapist told her she was so focused on looking after the needs of her family that she wasn’t grieving.

“I just felt that as long as everybody around me was OK, I am OK,” Jean said.

She said her therapist asked her, “What about you?”

“I told her I didn’t know, I just didn’t know about me.”

Preparing for the trial In the days after the shooting, protesters in Dallas chanted Botham’s name in the streets.

At the time, civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump, one of the Jean family attorneys, called it an egregious example of the constant threat of deadly violence African Americans live with.

“We’re still dealing in America with black people being killed in some of the most arbitrary ways, driving while black, walking while black, and now we have to add living while black,” he said last year.

Jean said she also believes Guyger would have acted differently if Botham were white.

Listening to the 911 call, Jean said she felt Guyger seemed more concerned about losing her job than about Botham. Jean and her husband have also filed a federal lawsuit against Guyger and the city in October, alleging the former officer used excessive force. A judge granted a stay in the civil case until the completion of the criminal case, said Daryl K. Washington, a Dallas attorney who represents the Jean family.

In her therapy sessions, Jean has focused on what she could expect to happen in the courtroom, so she won’t be surprised. She knows she will likely hear the 911 call again.

The therapist didn’t tell Jean how to react to each scenario, but asked her what she thought she should do. If photos of Botham’s body were shown in court, Jean said she could close her eyes, or turn away, or decide that she can confront it.

Kimi Nolte, the lead victim services coordinator at Victim Support Services, a Seattle based nonprofit, said the families she accompanies to court for homicide trials fear seeing the pictures of their loved ones.

“A lot of families end up being unable to stop imagining what the last minutes of their loved one’s life was like,” said Nolte, who is not involved with the trial. “Were they in significant fear? Were they in a large amount of pain?”

“And to hear about it in court, it might just validate what they suspect all along,” she said.

“Trial has a way of bringing everything right back up again. Their grief is going to feel refreshed — like they hit a refresh button on their internet browser,” Nolte said.

To prepare her clients for court, Laura Takacs, a clinical social worker in Seattle, teaches them grounding techniques to soothe themselves when they see or hear difficult things.

She encourages them to give a victim impact statement, because they will have a captive audience to describe who their loved one was. She also suggests that clients find out the order of testimony from attorneys, so they can decide whether to step out of the courtroom.

Trauma “reverses things that you thought were true about the world, the way you view the world,” she said.

“It is so important to give every opportunity for the survivor to restore some level of control, control in what they hear, control in what they see, control in their ability to be able to respond,” said Takacs, who specializes in helping people cope with sudden, traumatic deaths.

Washington, the attorney who warned Jean about the 911 call, said he has tried to “prepare her slowly” by discussing scenarios she might encounter in court.

He has talked about the second-degree murder conviction of former Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke, who is white, for killing Laquan McDonald, a black teenager, to encourage her to have faith in the American judicial system.

Jean set aside her Saturdays to pray for justice, and fast to strengthen her faith.

She prays for Guyger “to be truthful,” and for the prosecution to “represent our interests effectively.”

For her family, especially her children, she prays for “courage to deal with the trial and acceptance of the outcome.”

As she prepares, Jean says her son’s encouragement to look on the bright side will guide her.

“I’m just trying my best to focus on God being the ultimate judge,” she said. “And whatever the outcome is, then that’s His doing.”

On September 6, the anniversary of Botham’s death, jury selection began in Dallas.

Her brother’s keeper

When Jean’s daughter, Findley, learned she would be a prosecution witness, she started to tremble.

She still trembles every time she thinks of Botham’s death.

“We were a team, the two of us,” she said. Since Botham was shot, “it feels so dark, and I feel alone without him.”

Botham attended Harding University to be closer to Findley, who had moved to the United States. The two spent most Thanksgivings together. He called to apologize when he couldn’t make one Thanksgiving, she said.

Findley listened to the 911 call nearly a half-dozen times. She said she heard Botham suffering in the background.

“I always thought because he was shot through his heart, I always assumed that he died on the spot,” she said. “It bothered me that he suffered.”

Like her mother, she has worked with a therapist, and she prays several times a day that Guyger will be found guilty.

“We’re always taught to ask God for exactly what you want, so this is what I want: I want justice for Botham.”

Now she is getting ready for court, preparing “for the first time I see his killer.”

“Anything else, I’m ready for it,” she said. “I am my brother’s keeper.”

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Nicholas Jn Louis

(PRESS RELEASE) — On Friday, September 20, 2019, about 10:25 p.m., 22-year-old Nicholas Jn. Louis of Ti La Ressource, Dennery was seated on an outdoor bench near the main road when he was accosted by an unknown male suspect, armed with a firearm.

The suspect discharged multiple rounds of ammunition in his direction, wounding him in various areas about his body.

Nicholas Jn. Louis was conveyed to the Dennery Hospital via ambulance where he was pronounced dead by a medical practitioner. A post mortem examination is scheduled for a later date.

Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to contact the nearest police station or the Crime Hotline at 45-CRIME (4527463).

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Former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger, center, arrives for the first day of her murder trial in Dallas on Sept. 23, 2019.Tom Fox / Dallas Morning News via AP

(NBC NEWS) — The murder trial against ex-Dallas police officer Amber Guyger opened Monday with the revelation that she was in a sexual relationship with her partner on the city’s police force — and questions as to whether she was distracted by a phone call with him in the minutes before fatally shooting her neighbor.

Guyger’s defense attorneys aren’t disputing that on the night of Sept. 6, 2018, she mistakenly entered the unit of Botham Jean, who lived one floor above her in the same Dallas apartment complex, and then opened fire, believing he was an intruder.

But prosecutors introduced the state’s case by attempting to show that Guyger, 31, failed at every turn to prevent the deadly chain of events. Guyger was initially arrested on manslaughter charges, but a grand jury indicted her in November 2018 on a murder charge.

“At the moment of this shooting, it was an intentional and knowing offense,” Dallas County District Attorney Faith Johnson said at the time of the indictment.

In a victory before the trial opened Monday, lead prosecutor Jason Hermus convinced state District Judge Tammy Kemp to permit Guyger’s cellphone records, web searches and text messages from the night of the shooting into evidence.

In doing so, Hermus on Monday revealed that the texts showed that Guyger had been having a relationship with Martin Rivera, her partner on an elite crime response team with the Dallas Police Department, and that she was on the phone with him as she drove into the parking garage and just prior to shooting Jean before 10 p.m.

In addition, prosecutors said, Guyger sent Rivera a sexually suggestive Snapchat message during the night of the shooting that said, “Wanna touch?” and that they had plans to meet up that night.

During his opening statement, defense attorney Robert Rogers acknowledged that Guyger had thought of Rivera as “her rock,” and that they began an intimate relationship that grew out of being co-workers and sharing a squad car.

But Rogers denied Rivera had any actual plans to see Guyger that night, and that “the relationship was ramping down” because Guyger was looking for someone “more stable.”

He told the jury not to believe that she was distracted that night, but rather was fatigued and acting on “autopilot.”

“What was going through Amber’s mind was that, ‘I’m done with my day’s work. I’m going home,'” Rogers said.

Guyger’s mindset — and how she could have failed to notice she was at the wrong apartment — will be the focal point of this trial, which has become one of the most anticipated murder trials in Dallas in decades. The shooting involving Jean, an accountant originally from the Caribbean island of St. Lucia, has reignited conversations about racial bias, police use of force and concerns that law-abiding citizens are not safe even in their own homes.

Guyger is white and Jean was black. She was off duty but in uniform when she got inside his apartment and fired her service weapon twice. She later told investigators that she had confused his apartment for hers and believed he was a burglar when she saw a “large silhouette” in the darkness.

Guyger said she tried to use her electronic key fob to enter the apartment door, but that it pushed open.

Rogers told the jurors in his opening statement that the plate around the door to Jean’s apartment was defectively installed, and that it doesn’t always fully shut, which could explain how Guyger got inside.

Rogers also said a survey of residents of the apartment complex found that Guyger wasn’t alone in her mistake: More than 90 tenants said they unintentionally parked on the wrong floor or went to the wrong apartment.

Part of the problem, Rogers said, is that there’s no obvious floor numbers at the entrance to the apartment complex from the parking garage.

The defense team argued that Jean’s death was a mistake — but one without criminal intent behind it.

A so-called mistake of fact defense is enshrined under Texas law and will hinge on convincing the jury that Guyger made a reasonable error when she believed she was killing an intruder in her own home and exercising her right of self-defense.

The courtroom on Monday was filled with loved ones of Jean, with family and other supporters spilling out into the hallway. Among those who testified on the first day of the trial was Jean’s sister, Alissa Findley, who told the jury that he smoked marijuana in his apartment after he was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Hermus said the smell of marijuana — among other sensory details — should have been a clue to Guyger that she was on a different floor and at the wrong apartment.

During his opening statement, Hermus held up a red floor mat that Jean kept outside of his unit’s front door and said Guyger’s apartment did not have one.

“For her errors, for her omission, Botham paid the ultimate price,” he added.

Jean was sitting at home in shorts and a T-shirt, watching television and eating a bowl of vanilla ice cream when Guyger entered his apartment, Hermus said.

According to him, one of the bullets came to rest halfway between Jean’s stomach and his back, and its trajectory shows that he was either trying to sit up from the couch or was cowering when Guyger came upon him.

Hermus added that Guyger had moved into the building about two months prior to the shooting, but that during the walk from the parking garage to Jean’s apartment, passing about 16 different units, some adorned by potted plants or other decorations, “she just keeps on going on, missing all these clues.”

Guyger faces a maximum of life in prison if found guilty of murder. The trial is expected to last about two weeks.

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Rivera (left) and Guyger

(CBS NEWS) — The police force partner of former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger acknowledged that they had a sexual relationship and exchanged sexually explicit text messages and photos with her the day she shot Botham Jean. However, Martin Rivera denied making plans to rendezvous with Guyger later that night, as prosecutors suggest.

Prosecutors contend Guyger was distracted by a telephone conversation with Rivera when she mistook Jean’s apartment for hers and entered, believed him to be an intruder and shot him.

Prosecutors questioned Rivera extensively about a 16-minute phone conversation he had with Guyger as she headed to her apartment that night in September 2018. Asked what it was about, he said he believes it was mostly about police work but his memory of the call was hazy. Again, however, he denied that it involved plans to see Guyger later that evening.

Prosecutors said that after Guyger shot Jean, she deleted the logs of her text exchanges with Rivera from her cellphone. Rivera said he didn’t know why she had done this but acknowledged having done the same as well.

CBS DFW reports that those racy messages have been recovered and Rivera then testified about the messages.

Prosecutor Jason Hermus: “Would you send provocative photographs of yourself to Amber Guyger?”

Corporal Rivera: “Uh, yes.”

One text from Guyger read, “Wanna touch?” around 9:30 the night of the deadly shooting.

At 10:02 p.m., Rivera received a text from Guyger, “I need you. Hurry.”

At 10:03 p.m., Guyger texted Rivera, “I *ucked up.”

Prosecutor said Guyger typed those last messages while she was on the phone with 911 saying she’s shot Jean.

Jean family attorney Daryl Washington called the messages revealing.

“At the time that Botham was struggling to take his very last breath, we saw a police officer who was more concerned about herself and was sending off text messages,” Washington said.

Guyger was off duty but still in uniform when she shot Jean. She told investigators that after a 15-hour shift she parked on the fourth floor of the complex’s garage – rather than the third floor, where she lived – and found the apartment’s door ajar.

Three days later, Guyger was arrested for manslaughter. She was subsequently fired from the Dallas Police Department and charged by a grand jury.

The jury will have to decide whether Guyger committed murder, a lesser offense such as manslaughter or criminally negligent homicide, or no crime at all.

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Guyger (left) and Botham Jean

(DAILY MAIL) — Ex-Dallas cop Amber Guyger was allegedly texting her police partner while she was on the phone to 911 to report that had shot her neighbor before deleting the messages in the hours that followed.

The 31-year-old is on trial for the fatal shooting of 26-year-old Botham Jean last year after she said she mistakenly entered his apartment thinking it was her own.

During opening statements on Monday, prosecutors said that Guyger was in a sexual relationship with her police partner Martin Rivera and that she had texted him to say ‘I’m f**ked’ and that she needed him in the minutes after she shot Jean.

She allegedly sent the two text messages to her partner while she was simultaneously on the phone to 911 as Jean was bleeding to death on his floor.

Prosecutors said Guyger had also been speaking on the phone to her partner just moments before the shooting, had sent him sexually explicit texts and Snapchats earlier in the day and had made plans to meet up with him later that night.

Guyger deleted the text messages in the hours after the fatal shooting, according to prosecutors.

She wasn’t arrested until 72 hours later.

Dallas County assistant district attorney Jason Hermus showed the bright red doormat that was outside Jean’s apartment. In comparison, he said Guyger did not have any doormat as he argued that she should have noticed it wasn’t her apartment

Dallas County assistant district attorney Jason Hermus, who said Guyger’s partner would testify in the trial, argued that the messages were relevant to showing her mental state before and after the shooting.

The defense, however, had earlier argued that the material was not relevant and could be prejudicial.

Hermus told jurors that Guyger had worked a long day but that it was primarily office work following her 13-1/2 hour shift.

He said there was no evidence that Jean ever posed a threat to Guyger.

Hermus called Jean ‘a wonderful, decent, kind man’ and said that he was eating a bowl of vanilla ice cream when Guyger entered his apartment.

Prosecutors tried to poke holes in Guyger’s argument that she thought she had entered her own apartment and that Jean was an intruder.

Hermus pointed out that the view from the parking garage was different, the door numbers were wrong and that Jean had a bright red door mat outside his apartment.

He told the jury that when Guyger got to her apartment complex, she parked on the fourth floor instead of the third floor, where she had lived for two months.

When she arrived at what she thought was her unit, she failed to notice the bright red semi-circle welcome mat in front of Jean’s apartment, he said.

Jean’s apartment was also unlocked, messy and smelled of marijuana, three more signs that should have tipped Guyger off that it was not her apartment, Hermus said.

Despite the clues, she still burst through the door and opened fire, striking Jean once in the chest as he watched television and ate a bowl of vanilla ice cream.

‘He was in the sanctuary of his home doing no harm to anyone,’ Hermus said. ‘There he lie on his back in his home bleeding to death alone with his killer.’

The case has attracted intense scrutiny for its strange circumstances and as one in a chain of shootings of black men by white police officers.

Lawyers for Guyger are likely to argue she fired in self-defense based on the mistaken belief that she was in her own apartment and that Jean, an accountant from the Caribbean island nation of St. Lucia, was a burglar.

The case may hang on whether the jury believes that this was a reasonable mistake. Twelve jurors and four alternatives were selected to hear the case earlier this month but their demographics aren’t yet public.

Guyger was off duty but still in uniform when she shot Jean in his home on the evening of September 6, 2018.

She told investigators that after a 15-hour shift she parked on the fourth floor of her apartment complex’s garage – rather than the third floor where she lived – and found the apartment’s door ajar.

Believing she was at her own apartment and seeing a silhouette of a figure who didn’t respond to verbal commands, Guyger said she fired two shots, killing him.

‘I thought it was my apartment,’ she said nearly 20 times in a 911 emergency call as she waited for emergency responders to arrive.

‘I’m an off-duty officer. I thought I was in my apartment and I shot a guy thinking he was, thinking it was my apartment.’

Throughout the five-minute phone call, Guyger cursed and cried.

‘I’m f****d. Oh my God. I’m sorry,’ she could be heard saying.

Throughout the call, she also spoke to Jean, called him ‘bud’ and encouraged him to stay alive.

Prosecutors are expected to grill Guyger on how and why she mistook Jean’s fourth-floor apartment for her own on the third floor.

Neighbors had already contradicted her version of events by claiming to have heard arguing before the fatal shooting.

One neighbor said they heard a woman in the hallway knocking on a door and yelling: ‘Let me in, let me in.’

Another neighbor then heard gunshots and afterwards claimed to have heard a man shouting: ‘Oh my God. Why did you do that?’

Guyger was only arrested 72 hours later and then charged with just manslaughter.

It sparked anger in the African-American community, which saw the case as potentially another one of a white police officer getting off lightly for killing a black man.

The department took two weeks to fire Guyger despite charging her with manslaughter after Botham’s death.

Following the backlash and a grand jury investigation, Guyger was charged with first-degree murder. The charge is punishable under Texas law with up to life in prison.

The jury will have to decide whether Guyger committed murder, a lesser offense such as manslaughter or criminally negligent homicide, or no crime at all.

Jean was a native of St. Lucia who worked in Dallas for an accounting and consulting firm.

He had come to the US in 2011 after winning a place at Harding University in Arkansas.

He studied business administration and accounting and management and graduated in 2016. PwC hired him out of college as a risk assurance associate.

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(CBSDFW.COM) – After a drama-filled day one of motions, video reviews and interruptions, testimony in the murder trial of former police officer Amber Guyger continues in Dallas. (SEE BODY CAM VIDEO BELOW ARTICLE)

Tuesday morning the first witness to take the stand in day 2 of the trial was 911 call taker Karla Denise Rivera Berumen.

It was on September 6, 2018 when Guyger shot and killed her unarmed neighbor, Botham Jean. The emergency worker verified Guyger placed a 911 call at 9:59 p.m. on that day requesting an ambulance.

Jurors, Guyger, and some of Jean’s family listened as she told the 911 dispatcher that “I’m an off-duty officer. I thought I was in my apartment and I shot a guy thinking that he was… thinking it was my apartment.”

On the call she repeats over and over and over that, “I thought it was my apartment.”

Amber Guyger on day 2 of her murder trial. (credit: CBSDFW.COM)

The second person to testify was Sgt. Stephen Williams, a Dallas Police Department body-worn camera supervisor. The sergeant gave specifics on the recording capabilities of DPD body cams and clarified that cameras record the 30 seconds prior to when an officer actually engages the camera.

The 3rd person on the stand was Dallas police Officer Michael Lee, who at the time of Jean’s shooting was a neighborhood police officer for the central substation. It was his body cam video that was then shown to the court.

The video shows Officer Lee driving up to the Southside Flats, trying to get into the gate of the building and ultimately entering the grounds. Officer Lee and another policeman run up several flights of stairs and ultimately respond to Guyger after announcing their presence several times.

Still saying she thought it was her apartment Guyger tells them Jean was shot “top left” and one of the officers immediately starts lifesaving efforts.

Jean is seen on the floor, motionless and covered in blood. After performing CPR and chest compressions the officers switch places and continue to try to revive Jean.

Paramedics arrived after about 5 minutes and load Jean onto a gurney — still performing CPR.

Officer Lee was asked about his actions as he proceeded to Jean’s apartment, the lighting conditions in the hallway, and the placement of items and furniture found inside as life-saving measures began.

In reference to Lee’s body cam video, prosecutors say the tape supports a number of their arguments including that —

* Guyger is never seen tending to Jean and no furniture or items were moved to suggest she ever had
* Jean had noticeable items in his apartment that should have been telltale signs to Guyger that it wasn’t her unit
* Arriving officers had their guns drawn because they didn’t know the situation they were encountering but didn’t shoot anyone they encountered, suggesting Guyger’s actions were not appropriate

Botham Jean

It was around 11:20 a.m. that Dallas police Sgt. Breanna Valentine took the stand. She told jurors how she had been next door at a 7-Eleven when the shooting call went out. Attorneys asked her about what happened when she entered Botham Jean’s apartment.

“When I walked inside she [Guyger] was inside. I could see the compliant with two officers performing CPR,” she said. “I swept the apartment. There was no one else in the apartment. When I came back into the front room [I] asked them if they needed anything or what I could do. They were asking about first aid, so I went to the bathroom, didn’t see a first aid kit, grabbed some hand towels [and] brought ‘em back out. They told me they were good. I went back outside with the defendant and then I took her immediately downstairs once he other sergeant showed up.”

Later prosecutors focused on still frames from Valentine’s body cam. Lawyers asked, “What is Amber Guyger doing at that particular moment and time?” Valentine responded, “It appears she’s on her phone.”

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Amber Guyger in court on day two of the trial on Tuesday.

(AP) — The second day of testimony in the murder trial for a Texas police officer charged in the shooting death of her neighbor began Tuesday with jurors hearing the officer’s frantic call to 911 following the shooting. (SEE VIDEOS BELOW STORY)

In the 911 call, Amber Guyger tells a dispatcher that she shot Botham Jean because she thought she was in her own apartment. Prosecutors said Monday that Jean was sitting in his living room, eating a bowl of vanilla ice cream, when Guyger walked into his home and shot him.

The recording of the 911 call was previously obtained by a Dallas TV station. In the call, Guyger says “I thought it was my apartment” nearly 20 times. She also says: “I’m gonna lose my job” and “I am going to need a supervisor.”

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In April, 2007, funeral services were held for Brandon Washington who was shot and killed by Dallas police. His aunt, Cynthia Washington (right) was comforted before the service by Katrina Jo Randolph as she viewed Brandon’s body. (MONA REEDER / 116916). At left is Botham Jean, also a police shooting victim.

(DALLAS MORNING NEWS) — Dallas police Officer Martin Rivera took the stand this week in the Amber Guyger trial, where prosecutors revealed that he and Guyger, his former police partner, had an on-again, off-again sexual relationship.

Rivera also has something else in common with Guyger: The 17-year DPD veteran also shot and killed an unarmed man.

On March 22, 2007, Rivera shot 20-year-old Brandon Washington outside a convenience store, where the man was eating a stolen candy bar.

On Wednesday, Brandon’s mother, Antoinette Washington will join a midday news conference in downtown Dallas by Mothers Against Police Brutality to demand that the 12-year-old case be re-investigated and that Rivera be fired.

The Dallas Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

Reached by phone on Wednesday, Dallas Police Association President Mike Mata declined to comment, saying he could be called to testify.

The night he was killed, Washington was suspected of shoplifting a candy bar by a clerk at a convenience store on Lake June Road in Pleasant Grove, according to news reports.

When Washington was slow to take his hands out of his pockets, Rivera shot Washington once in the head and leg, police records say. He died later.

No weapon was recovered from Washington and police said they believed he might have been reaching for a cellphone, according to news reports at the time.

A grand jury looked at the case, and Rivera was not charged with a crime.

In a news release, Collette Flanagan, who founded MAPB after Dallas police killed her own unarmed son, Clinton Allen, said police officials reported that Rivera thought Washington had a gun. “But he was just using the cop’s get-out-of-jail-free card,” Flanagan said. “And it worked.”

Rivera (left) and Guyger

Flanagan said the group wants Rivera “fired immediately from DPD, and the Washington case reopened and investigated.

“Dallas police officers who kill were routinely no-billed for more than 40 years, after 1973,” MABP co-founder Sara Mokuria said in the news release.

In 1973, Santos Rodriguez, who was 12 years old, was shot in the head while handcuffed in a Dallas police car after officers picked up him and his brother on suspicion of burglary. Officer Darrell L. Cain was found guilty. He served two-and-a-half years of a five-year prison sentence.

More than four decades would pass in Dallas County before another police officer was found guilty of murder in an on-duty shooting.

Former Balch Springs Officer Roy Oliver was sentenced to 15 years in prison for the murder of Jordan Edwards, a 15-year-old boy shot while riding in a car with other teenagers leaving a house party.

“Who knows how many officers got away with murder because of destroyed evidence and false statements? We should revisit that whole era of unaccountable use of deadly force,” Mokuria said.

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David Armstrong, a Texas Ranger and investigator in the murder case of Botham Jean

(DALLAS  MORNING NEWS) — Going to the wrong apartment at the South Side Flats was a common experience for residents, particularly those who lived on Amber Guyger’s and Botham Jean’s floors, an investigator testified Wednesday in Guyger’s murder trial.

Ranger David Armstrong said that even he had trouble determining which floor he was on while investigating the fired Dallas police officer’s shooting of Jean, her 26-year-old neighbor.

Guyger, 31, was off duty but still in her police uniform the night of Sept. 6, 2018, when she fatally shot Jean, an accountant, at the South Side Flats apartment complex near downtown Dallas. She has said she went to the wrong floor and mistook Jean for a burglar after believing she was in her own apartment.

The defense has called the shooting an “awful and tragic, but innocent” mistake, while prosecutors have questioned how Guyger missed many visual cues, such as Jean’s red doormat, that indicated she was at the wrong apartment.

On Tuesday, Armstrong testified that at the time of the shooting the apartment building didn’t offer many visual clues to indicate which floor a resident was on. During cross-examination, he said a black placard near the elevator of the parking garage was the only indication of the floor number, and it was a sign a driver had to look hard for.

“There were no clear obvious signs showing what level you were on,” he testified when questioned by Robert Rogers, one of Guyger’s attorneys.

Rogers showed the jury several photos of the third and fourth floors of the building side by side, and asked Armstrong if there were differences. He noted the numbers on each apartment weren’t on the doors, but above eye-level and to the left of each door.

“If you’re looking at eye level, there’s absolutely no difference, correct?” Rogers asked Armstrong while the jurors viewed the photos.

“That is correct,” Armstrong replied. He added that the apartment building has since added more visual indicators to make it clear which floor a resident is on.

The Ranger noted that, during his investigation, he heard from several residents who went to the wrong apartment, particularly residents on the third and fourth floors.

Armstrong testified that he led a team that interviewed 297 of the 349 residents at the apartment complex, and 15 percent — 46 of those interviewed — had walked to the wrong floor and put their key in the door. The percentage was higher for residents on the third and fourth floors, where 38 residents had gotten confused.

Of all the residents interviewed, Armstrong said 93 of the residents interviewed had previously parked on the wrong floor in the parking garage, 76 of them residents living on the third or fourth floor.

On Tuesday, when asked by prosecutors about the regular occurrence of residents going to the wrong door, Armstrong said Guyger’s case was the only situation in which someone was shot.

Armstrong, who obtained a manslaughter warrant for Guyger three days after the shooting, said Wednesday that he didn’t believe had Guyger committed a crime. He was speaking outside the presence of the jury and being questioned by Guyger’s defense.

“After finishing your investigation and looking at the totality of the circumstances and considering everything, do you believe today that you have probable cause to believe that Amber Guyger committed a crime?” Rogers asked.

“Based on the totality of the circumstances, based on the complete investigation, no, sir,” Armstrong said.

Armstrong said he believed Guyger acted reasonably after perceiving Jean as a deadly threat.

After prosecutors argued that Armstrong’s opinion could confuse the jury, state District Judge Tammy Kemp ruled that Armstrong could not testify to Guyger’s reasonableness during the shooting, nor could he give testimony on where he believed Jean had been located in his apartment when he was shot.

Prior testimony, photos and video showed many items in the apartment were moved as police and paramedics tried to resuscitate Jean.

Before she made the ruling, Kemp sent the jury out of the room so she could rewatch body-cam footage of officers arriving at Jean’s apartment and attempting to save his life.

As the video filled three large screens in the courtroom, Jean’s parents, Bertrum and Allison Jean, grew increasingly upset. They left the courtroom when it was shown Tuesday.

Jean’s father Bertrum Jean looked away toward the courtroom wall. At one point, he put his hands over his ears to block out the sound.

He glanced up at one point and then quickly looked away from the video of officers desperately trying to revive his son. A family friend patted his shoulder.

Prosecutor LaQuita Long sat on the court bench in front of the Jeans whispering as they looked away.

When the video stopped, the Jeans stood. Allison Jean looked anguished and tears fell from her face as she and her husband walked out of the courtroom.

For the next several minutes, every time the courtroom door opened, a low wail could be heard from the hallway.

Kemp didn’t realize Jean’s family had still been in the courtroom as the video played, showing him dying on his apartment floor.

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” she said, raising a hand to her forehead. “I didn’t even give any thought to the victim’s family — the alleged victim’s family being here.”

Wednesday’s testimony was initially delayed after Kemp told attorneys a female juror had a “professional relationship” with Armstrong.

Armstrong was initially called to testify Tuesday, in the second day of the trial, and showed the jury video of his sweep through Jean’s apartment.

The juror was questioned in private about the matter, and testimony soon continued uninterrupted.

Also Wednesday, an analyst with the Dallas County district attorney’s office walked jurors through a timeline of Guyger’s and Jean’s locations on the day of Sept. 6, showing the times her panicked 911 call was placed and the times of texts she sent her police partner, with whom she had a sexual relationship, that day.

Jurors also heard from a fourth neighbor of Jean who lived on the fourth floor of the complex where he lived. Three others took the stand Tuesday.

All four testified that they heard gunshots the night of Sept. 6, 2018, but when asked by the prosecution if they had heard any loud police commands before that, each said no.

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Amber Guyger (left) and Texas Ranger David Armstrong

(WFAA) — Former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger reasonably believed she was shooting an intruder in her apartment when she shot and killed 26-year-old Botham Jean, the lead investigator of the case said Wednesday.

Guyger, 31, is charged with murder in the death of her upstairs neighbor. She was off duty but still in uniform when she mistakenly went to Jean’s apartment instead of her own. She was able to get inside because the door was unlocked and not properly latched.

Defense attorneys say Guyger shot Jean in self-defense believing he was an intruder advancing on her when she entered the apartment.

Texas Ranger David Armstrong said Wednesday that he doesn’t believe Guyger committed any crime, including murder, manslaughter or criminally negligent homicide.

“I believe that she did perceive him as a deadly threat,” Armstrong said. “I don’t believe it was reckless or criminally negligent based on the totality of the investigation.”

But jurors won’t get to hear that.

The jury was outside the courtroom when defense attorney Robert Rogers questioned Armstrong, who was called to the witness stand by prosecutors. Armstrong testified briefly Tuesday afternoon and was still on the stand when court resumed Wednesday.

Rogers wanted to question Armstrong about his opinions on whether Guyger reasonably believed she was in her own apartment and where he believed Jean was standing when he was shot.

Jean had been sitting on his couch eating vanilla ice cream topped with crumbled cookies watching TV moments before the shooting. Prosecutors allege Jean was barely getting up from the couch when Guyger walked into his home and shot him.

Defense attorneys say he was walking toward Guyger when she shot.

Body-camera footage showing the first officers arriving in the apartment captured images of the still-alive Jean with his head near the end of his couch and his feet in between the living room and kitchen area. His sandals appeared to have fallen off his feet.

State District Judge Tammy Kemp re-watched the footage to see whether Armstrong could testify about his opinions on where Jean was standing when he was shot.

Armstrong said he believed Jean was shot standing in the position where his sandals were found.

Jean’s family was still in the courtroom when the video was played. They had left the courtroom Tuesday before it was played for jurors.

Jean’s father, Bertram Jean, put his head against the wall and put his hands over his ears. Allison Jean, Botham Jean’s mother, hung her head for several minutes before the couple got up to leave the courtroom.

Allison Jean could barely contain her sobbing as she left the courtroom.

Kemp looked up in surprise after realizing the family was in the room.

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” she said.

The courtroom could occasionally hear wailing outside whenever the door opened.

Prosecutor Jason Hermus argued that Armstrong’s testimony was “inappropriate.” He said the jury has to decide for themselves whether the shooting was reasonable.

Kemp decided defense attorneys could not question Armstrong about whether he thought the shooting was reasonable and said she doesn’t believe anyone could conclusively say where Jean was when he was shot based on the body-camera footage.

Several officers were gathered around Jean, and Kemp said that movement could’ve pushed the sandals around.

The Jean family returned before the jury was brought back into the courtroom.

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Dominic Fedee is one of the affected, according to the PM

(GIS) — Prime Minister Allen Chastanet has alerted the public about fake profiles that have surfaced impersonating himself and other government ministers.

The prime minister cautions against making finances or personal documents available, in response to requests. He added that he is working to resolve the issue.

Find the prime minister’s statement below:

“Fellow Saint Lucians, Please be aware that there is currently another impersonator Facebook profile in my name which has been directly messaging social media users offering grants and other types of financial opportunities. They use the names of credible organizations such as the United Nations to give credibility to their requests.

“I am begging you to please ignore and report these profiles when you receive such messages. Several other ministers are also facing the same challenge including Hon. Dr. Gale Rigobert, Hon. Lenard Montoute and Hon. Dominic Fedee.

“Again I beg you, please do not entertain these fake profiles or worse please do not send them any financial resources or copies of your personal documents. We are working to resolve the issue. Thank you for your understanding.”

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Amber Guyger (left) shot Botham Jean in his apartment in The Cedars neighborhood south of downtown Dallas.

(AP) — A white Dallas police officer who fatally shot her black neighbor in his apartment last year had no drugs or alcohol in her system at the time, a police detective testified Tuesday.

Detective Eddie Ibarra’s testimony during the second day of Amber Guyger’s murder trial marked the first time her toxicology results have been publicly revealed.

Guyger was off duty but in uniform when she shot Botham Jean last September. Guyger has said she mistook his apartment for her own.

Prosecutors have said Guyger should have noticed she was on the wrong floor, and contend she was distracted by a phone and text conversation with a colleague with whom she had a sexual relationship. Guyger’s attorneys have argued that she fired in self-defense based on the mistaken belief that she was in her home and that Jean was a burglar.

Jurors heard her frantic call to 911 following the shooting. In the call, Guyger says “I thought it was my apartment” nearly 20 times. She also says: “I’m gonna lose my job” and “I am going to need a supervisor.” The recording of the 911 call was previously obtained by a Dallas TV station.

Prosecutors said Monday that 26-year-old Jean, an accountant who grew up in the Caribbean nation of St. Lucia, was sitting in his living room, eating a bowl of vanilla ice cream, when Guyger, 31, walked into his home and shot him.

Jurors on Tuesday watched body camera footage from Officer Michael Lee, who was among the responders to the shooting. Guyger, who was later fired from the force, looks panicked when she appears briefly in Lee’s footage. In it, Guyger says, “I thought it was my apartment. I thought it was my apartment,” as Lee moves past her and puts on a pair of gloves.

Lee testified that despite officers’ efforts, Jean didn’t open his eyes or otherwise communicate with first responders.

Senior Cpl. Dale Richardson testified that he was told during the investigation that Guyger’s set of keys were found dangling from Jean’s door. He said that when tested, Guyger’s key made a light on the lock blink red and it would not operate, while Jean’s key made the lock blink green and make a whirring sound that indicated it was operating.

Guyger’s defense has said she was able to enter the apartment because the door wasn’t locked.

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(DALLAS MORNING NEWS) — In the hour or so after Amber Guyger shot Botham Jean in his home, she got a visit from the president of Dallas’ biggest police union.

Testimony in Guyger’s murder trial Tuesday also revealed that Mike Mata, head of the Dallas Police Association, told his subordinate that night last September to shut off her in-car camera system so he and Guyger could speak in private.

In a hearing that took place outside the jury’s presence Tuesday, lead prosecutor Jason Hermus said Guyger was told not to say anything while the camera was on. He said turning it off and allowing her to interact with other officers gave her preferential treatment that wouldn’t have been given to an ordinary person in police custody.

“I think this investigation, from the very beginning, treated Amber Guyger differently because she was a police officer,” Hermus said.

Defense attorney Robert Rogers, however, said his client was waiting for an attorney and that Mata was protecting her right to an attorney.

State District Judge Tammy Kemp, who is presiding over the trial, asked the lawyers whether Mata was a licensed attorney in addition to being a police officer. Hermus said he didn’t believe so.

“I don’t believe he has the right to preserve her rights,” Kemp said.

Sgt. Breanna Valentine, who also testified Tuesday, said that once she learned Guyger was responsible for the shooting, it was her responsibility to take Guyger to her patrol car and isolate her from the situation.

But that wasn’t what happened, prosecutors said.
With the jury out of the room, Hermus showed footage of several people interacting with Guyger before and after Valentine placed her in the squad car. Some of them are Guyger’s friends and fellow officers, Hermus said, and Guyger can be seen hugging one of them.

At some point, Mata is seen removing Guyger from the squad car, surveillance footage from that night shows.

Valentine told the court that Mata, her superior because he’s been a sergeant longer than she has, then instructed her to turn off a squad car camera that normally captures the movements and conversations of a person placed in custody inside a police car, and she did.

Valentine later said she would have left the squad car camera running if she knew Guyger had been off-duty during the shooting. Before the camera was cut off, video captured Guyger texting on her phone.

Kemp ultimately ruled Tuesday that the prosecution couldn’t ask Valentine about any “irregularities” in the interactions between Mata and Guyger in the presence of the jury.

Reached by phone, Mata declined to comment saying he could be called to testify.

Under Dallas Police Department policy, officers are allowed to consult a “companion” officer at the time of an officer-involved shooting. But it’s unclear whether the circumstances of Jean’s death fit the bill of an officer-involved shooting because Guyger was off duty at the time.

Officers can terminate a recording when there is no likelihood of “anything else evidentiary or law enforcement value occurring.” It is a violation of the department’s general orders for “an officer to fail to activate the body worn camera or intentionally terminate a recording in order to commit a violation of the department policy or law.”

A Dallas police spokeswoman declined to comment Tuesday when asked if the exchange violated department policies.

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(GIS) — Members of the Royal Saint Lucia Police Force who served in the Regional Security System (RSS) were honored recently for their involvement in Dominica relief efforts post-Hurricane Maria.

The honorees served in the RSS during the period Sep. 12 to Dec. 27, 2017.

Prime Minister of Saint Lucia Allen Chastanet was on hand to present the Regional Security medals to the respective officers.

Minister for Home Affairs and National Security, Hermangild Francis, who is also the chairperson of the RSS, expressed gratitude to the officers for their contribution, while Severin Moncherry, commissioner of police, expressed gratitude to the Regional Security System for the support rendered to the officers during the operational period.

“It is encouraging that our officers, when they are called upon, can assist not only in peacekeeping but also in rebuilding communities,” Police Commissioner Moncherry said.

He added that six officers have also joined the RSS to provide assistance to the Bahamas.

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