Amber Guyger is a murderer.
It took a jury of 12 less than 24 hours of deliberation to determine that yes, Guyger stole an innocent black man’s life and she deserves to squander her own behind bars.
Prior to the verdict, the family of Botham Jean filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Guyger and the city of Dallas. The filing accuses Guyger of using excessive force when she gunned down Jean in his own apartment on Sept. 6, 2018, and accuses the Dallas Police Department of failing to adequately train Guyger and other officers on how and when to properly utilize deadly force—which sounds more than reasonable to everyone not named U.S. District Judge Barbara Lynn.
ABC News reports that on Monday, Lynn ruled that the city of Dallas isn’t liable for the actions of its off-duty police officers. In turn, the city was dismissed from the civil lawsuit and Guyger will remain the sole defendant:
In her brief ruling, Lynn wrote that she was upholding a magistrate judge’s decision and dismissing the city because the suit failed “to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.”
Admittedly, this is a complicated circumstance, considering Guyger was off-duty when Jean’s murder took place. But in the end, the city asserted that the lawsuit failed to provide evidence that superior training would’ve prevented Jean’s death, and the judge agreed.
Daryl Washington, lawyer for the Jean family, expressed his disapproval after the ruling.
“There are a number of things that Amber Guyger did not do or said she did not recall how to do, “ Washington told the Dallas Morning News. “If this stuff was drilled into police officers, we would not have people saying they weren’t familiar with de-escalation practices.”