Early Thursday night, Botham Shem Jean was fatally shot in his Dallas apartment after an off-duty police officer mistook his apartment for her own.
Police say that the officer was still in uniform when she came to the apartment. There’s now a warrant for her arrest on charges of manslaughter.
Jean was a St. Lucia native who attended Harding University, where he served as a song leader at chapel. The university sent out a statement on Twitter regarding the shooting:
“We learned this morning of the tragic death of 2016 alumnus Botham Jean, who was shot in his home last night. Our entire family grieves today for the loss of Botham who has meant so very much to us. Please join us in praying for Botham’s friends & family.”
After graduating in 2016, the 26-year old moved to Dallas where he started working for PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Dallas Police Chief U. Renee Hall said in a news conference on Friday that the shooting is “a very unique situation.” Hall also mentioned that they will not handle the shooting under “normal officer-involved shooting protocol.”
During Harding chapel on Friday, Harding president Bruce McLarty shared one of his memories of the victim.
“At Lectureship one year, I asked him to lead singing one night,” McLarty said. “Because of the subject, there was a particular old hymn that I asked him if he would mind leading. He didn’t say anything about not knowing the song, but he had never heard it before in his life. He came up that evening and was just smiling and excited about leading it. He told me he had never heard the song before, but that day, he called back to St. Lucia and asked his grandmother to teach him that old hymn on the phone. So he shared it with us at Lectureship that night, and it was a truly special moment.”
Lumination will have more on the story as it’s developing.
So sad.