Transcript
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People were looking for a real change. I was thinking this was a cover up. They were trying to criminalize my son, and I will fight to see that he got justice in America. The course of justice can be made or broken by the smallest detail. These are the cases that define American justice. On September six, 2018, I had plans to go watch an NFL game with my good friend, both from Zion at one of our favorite sports bars. It was raining pretty badly. We all decided, Hey, we're just going to watch the game from home throughout the evening like we normally would. We still were texting about the game at a certain point of the night. As I got ready to go to sleep, I noticed he stopped texting back. I figured he probably just got tired as well. US on Mondays is Carla. What's your emergency? Hi, this is a off duty officer. Can I get any e-mails, any police as large as the EMS? Yes. Are you both okay? What's the address? I'm at the No. 14 78. It's 12 10. Sophomore 14 78. Yes, I'm an optimist. I'm an off duty officer. I thought it was in my apartment and I shot a guy thinking that he was thinking it was my apartment. He saw someone. Yes, I thought it was my apartment. Oh my god. Tommy Lehner, an investigator for the Dallas District Attorney, recalls the events of the evening. Within approximately four minutes of the 9-1-1 call, multiple Dallas police officers responded to the scene. There was obviously a sense of urgency. The actual shooting location was Southside flat, and it's literally 100 150 feet from the curb of the Dallas police headquarters. Are you okay over here? Okay, go ahead and talk. No, it's me. I'm off duty. I'm off duty. I thought they were in my apartment. I thought this was my fault. When officers arrived to the apartment, they were met by Amber Guyger. She's a police officer with the Dallas Police Department. She's off duty. I thought it was my apartment. I felt like it was a shot at the top left or a 26 year old African-American male is lying on the ground. Hey, can you hear me? Critically wounded from a gunshot to the chest started CPR. He is, in fact, the occupant of that apartment where he was found shot. The victim gravely injured and clinging to life is 26 year old, both of them John. While first responders rushed him to a local hospital. Officer Amber Guyger is placed in a squad car as investigators try to piece together what unfolded. The initial information given by Officer Geiger was that she thought this was her apartment and then she shot a man and I'm thinking, How can you go to the wrong apartment? How do you not know where you live? As questions mount crime scene techs combed both MS Apartment for answers. We found two fired cases in the kitchen. There were two shots fired. One struck the wall over the sofa. The other struck both on. Nothing indicated that he had a weapon. All the evidence suggests that he was sitting at a sofa, watching television, working on his computer and eating a bowl of ice cream as they continue to work the scene. Investigators get an update from the hospital at 10:46 p.m.. Both them, John is pronounced dead from a gunshot wound to the chest. Jason Fine is a Dallas County assistant district attorney. Unfortunately, both John lost his life, and this case at that point turned into a homicide case. Both M John's sister, Alissa Charles Finley, remembers what happened that night. I was asleep. It was about midnight and the phone rang. It was the social worker from Baylor University Hospital, and she said, I'm sorry to tell you both them was shot through his heart and he died and I I couldn't process anything after that. My mom was at my house in New York at the time, so I went into her room, turned on the light, and I just repeated the words and told her. Both then was brought in with a gunshot wound, and he succumbed to his injuries. Both Ms. Mother, Allison John and his friend Kevin Paul react to the news of his death. That's all the information she had. I got a message from someone who said that she lived in the apartment and that both her was shot by a police officer who mistakenly went to his apartment and shot him. I can't remember his name, a text from one of my friends and I kind of just went numb. The first emotional reaction was guilt. And it was why didn't we just keep our plans what they were supposed to be? He wouldn't have been home. None of this would have happened. When I met Beau, he worked at Pricewaterhouse Cooper and always just saw him as a top tier accountant. He had so many dreams and plans, but with them was born in St Lucia. He is the second of three. We always had a close relationship. Our family is very tight knit. Both grew up in the church. One of the areas that he found a niche in was in sing in. He left St Lucia to come to Harding University in the United States. He put together this group of students and they returned to St. Lucia every year to give back to vulnerable communities. There's a video of both them putting on a puppet show for the children at the orphanage. He had a huge heart, and he used that to reach others. September six, 2018. I spoke to both them. He told me about his plans to go to the sports bar that night, and I encouraged him to stay home because I always think, you know, you're safer at home. Back at the scene, investigators continue to process the apartment while Officer Amber Guyger waits in the police car. I walk up to the squad car where Amber Guyger is sitting. I open the door and I ask, Are you OK? She responds with, Yeah, I'm OK. Amber Guyger was not arrested at the scene. Officers that are involved in shootings do get a little bit of time to sort of cool off. In fact, unlike regular citizens, officers are afforded up to 72 hours to come in and give a statement, if requested by their police department. Around 3:00 a.m., Amber is released from the scene and is free to go home the next morning. The Dallas Police Department confronts the complex case. The chief of police made the decision to recuse the Dallas Police Department and called for the Texas Rangers to be the primary investigative agency. The Texas Rangers are a state agency within the Department of Public Safety. Dallas County Assistant District Attorney Masahiko was involved in a separate investigation. And then you have my office at the Dallas District Attorney's Office. We're conducting our own independent investigation into the shooting 18 hours after the shooting. Amber Guyger voluntarily submits to an interview on the record conducted by Texas ranger David Armstrong. She's accompanied by her attorney with members of the DA's office and the police department. Looking on Amber, what I'd like to do is just kind of start with how your been started just before she would just start me and we go every morning, usually at 5:30, start getting ready for work. They're usually done. Amber tells Ranger Armstrong that she worked an unusually long 13 hour shift that day, doing activity for the day. From there, I leave home with the team. It's helped her flow. So I get out, I go down. They go onto the hallway where my apartment set and I put the key fob in the door and it's like the door's already cracked or something. So I push it and I hear something in the apartment and so automatically show doesn't think it's somebody in my apartment that isn't. There are the only one that goes there. I see a dirt body like a silhouette just standing in the very back. It's dark inside. I can't see anything. And so I say, Let me see your hands. The person keeps moving around. I can't see where his hands are going. And so at that point, I feel like you're going to kill me and I know what you're going to kill me. Amber Guyger was allowed to essentially narrate what happened without really being challenged too much. That's a lot different than being interrogation, pushing somebody questioning certain details. And then at that point, he's moving into your advanced unit. And so I shoot two times and then I walk in, and it's at that point I'm looking around and I'm like, OK, this is something I feel like. I'm at 14 78. I live at 13 78. I've lived there less than two months. I just moved there. What did he say? Did he say anything? He said, Hey, hey, hey, grizzly. And that's all it was. And I said, lone Syrians live in Syria. What she never said was that Bowe had a weapon was going for a weapon. She just said that he didn't show his hands. And so in her mind, not complying, equate it to some sort of deadly threat and that she had to take down that threat. This particular incident, it's not a whodunit. It's very evident what occurred. What puzzled us is how did this happen and why did this happen? And most importantly, was this a lawful shooting at a. Awful use of force, or was this unlawful? I drove, I said, let me see your hands. The shooting occurred in a time where there's a lot of divisiveness upon racial lines. You have an unarmed black man in his own apartment and you have a white female officer who shot him. How can this just stand and there be no consequences? It's less than 24 hours after the fatal shooting of both them, John, in his own home. Officer Amber Guyger, who's been with the Dallas PD for five years, completes her initial interview with the Texas Rangers. Robert Rogers is Ambers defense attorney. At the end of the day, this boils down to Amber Guyger went into what she believed was her apartment. She feared for her life and acted in self-defense, and this was a justified homicide. Even with her statement for a self-defense claim based on Texas law, I see a person who admits to shooting another person and that is murder. As investigators from multiple agencies weigh amber statement, both MS family arrives in Dallas. We got to Dallas that Friday evening. I was on autopilot in my mind. My brother was alive. On Saturday, we met with the chief of police. She came by to extend her condolences. I also had to meet with the funeral home picked out his casket that afternoon at the church, where both them worship his sister and his parents. Meet with Ranger David Armstrong for an update on the investigation. David Armstrong said he had taken over the case and he felt that it was simply a big mistake that she had done nothing criminal. I felt at that time very helpless, and I said to him that both is my son and I will fight with every thing that was inside of me. Every muscle, every bone to see that he got justice. Both Ms. Loved ones are not alone in their outrage. For activists, both MS Killing is the latest in a long national history of racial division and misconduct by police. Protests sweep the streets of Dallas as news of a senseless killing spreads nationwide. Michael Mata is the president of the Dallas Police Association. Did I think that the community had a right to be outraged? Well, of course they did. Bottom team did not deserve to die that night. He didn't do anything wrong. But I don't think also that Amber Guyger woke up that day deciding to kill a person under mounting public scrutiny. The Texas Rangers complete their investigation three days after the shooting. They submit their findings and the Dallas PD arrest Amber Guyger. She was arrested for the felony offense of manslaughter. She booked into jail and was bonded out within an hour or so on a bond of $300000. I think that was probably the only appropriate charge that they could have done because you have to remember manslaughter is just where they negligent or reckless. Some people could say that she was reckless and she was negligent, that she could have done things different that would have prevented it. The news came on that Amber Guyger was arrested for manslaughter, but I never accepted this charge. My quest was to seek a murder conviction for the person who took my son away one week after losing both them, John. His loved ones gather in Dallas for his funeral. That was the day when it became real. When I saw both them actually lying in a casket. That's the worst day of my life. I couldn't say goodbye. I couldn't. That was not where he belonged. Brant John also struggles to comprehend what happened to his brother. I see the casket open and I remember this so clearly I was saying it out loud. What did they do to you, bro? What did they do to you? I couldn't even cry. Then I didn't. I didn't cry. Then I was mad. I was mad. It was just all anger. I just wanted to fight somebody. I wanted somebody to be dealt with on the same day as both mum's funeral. A judge releases the details of the search warrant for his apartment in. It is a list of evidence recovered at the scene, including less than half an ounce of marijuana and a marijuana grinder. I was immediately disgusted because I understand the narrative that you're trying to spin. Look at this black man who you tried to pay in this perfect hang up. We've got him, you know, marijuana use. They were trying to criminalize my son here. I had put justice on his side just for a couple of days so that I could concentrate on giving him a good send. But they brought me back into the fight. And so throughout that week, we met several times with the district attorney. Breaking news tonight from Dallas police headquarters Dallas Police Chief Renee Hall fired Amber Guyger as calls for justice continue. The Dallas Police Department fires Officer Guyger 11 days after both EMS funeral. Weeks later, the DA's investigators uncover surveillance showing that the police were protecting her on the night she killed both them. Shortly after the shooting occurred, Amber Guyger was surrounded with a support system of fellow officers. The police association an attorney. We also see how additional officers that didn't even respond to the scene heard about it and just showed up. They may know her. And so you also see her getting hugs. How many times do you walk up on a crime scene where someone has shot another person who is fighting for their life at the very moment and you've got officers coming up and hugging the shooter? And it certainly looks like special treatment. Later on in the video, you see that when Amber is placed in the squad car, she gets to ask one of the sergeants, Sgt. Valentine, do I leave the dashcam on, you know, like, you're on? Yeah, whatever you do, don't talk, OK? And Sgt. Valentine told her, Yeah, leave it on, but don't say anything. If this was any other person, when they're sitting in the backseat of the police car, the officer certainly are not going to tell them, don't say anything, they're going to have that dashcam running and they're going to capture and could potentially use anything that is done or said. While Miss Geiger is sitting in the front seat of that squad car, something very unusual happens. The dash cam is actually turned off, who turned it off and what were their motives behind it? Seeking answers after the killing of both them, John investigators want to know who turned off the dash camera, capturing Amber Guyger moments after the fatal shooting. Come to find out that the officer who turned the dash camera off was Mike Motta, the president of the Dallas Police Association. It was 100 percent my decision to have that camera turned off. I told Sergeant Ryan a Valentine. Can you please turn off the camera? Her attorneys calling and she said, sure. Amber Guyger called me as her association representative to get her legal coverage in root because that's the standard. That's what they're trained to do. That conversation that Amber Guyger is going to have with her attorney, that is attorney client privilege. Would you not? Audio or video record conversations between an attorney and their client once they have invoked their right to legal representation? The DA's office questions why that conversation wasn't noted when the dash cam was turned off. If there are situations where the camera needs to be turned off, it needs to be narrated into the camera so that everybody could know at the time why it's being turned off. It doesn't make any sense to me why that wasn't said at the time. If that really was the reason in my mind, I was thinking this was a cover up because everyone was protecting the officer and not my brother. We'll never know what happened after the dashcam was shut off in that car, but we still have to piece together every little thing leading up to Bo's apartment. There was a lot of speculation initially. Are in a relationship. There were always complaints. It's one thing to have rumors and speculation in the media. It's another thing to have a piece of evidence out there. We never saw anything that would lead us to believe that Bo and Amber Guyger ever met each other. These two people were complete strangers. Both sides continue to question how Amber Guyger ended up on both and John's doorstep. They dig into the evidence, including mobile phone records and surveillance video, and reach different conclusions. Officer Geiger lived on the third floor. Both of John lived on the fourth floor. There were remarkable differences in the third floor and the fourth floor that Officer Geiger was in the position to observe as she enters the hallway. Yeah, different decor on her floor. There is this potted plant. It really, really stands out. That plant, of course, was not on the fourth floor. But to me, the most remarkable landmark that she missed was a bright red floor mat in front of both of John's apartment. Officer Geiger doesn't have any type of floor mat in front of her apartment. None. How anyone can miss that is beyond me. I was with him at the time when he bought that red mat, and he said I could never mistake my apartment. Ambers attorney Robert Rogers insists that there's a reasonable explanation for missing that detail. Once Amber Geiger ended her shift and left the police department, she was on autopilot just like anyone else who has a tough day at work. We also know that the Rangers interviewed hundreds of people that lived in that apartment, and a high percentage of them had either parked on the wrong floor, gotten off on the wrong floor and walked to their door or even entered the wrong apartment. I thought it was my apartment. The difference is that nobody had ever fired a gun at a homeowner, and there were so many other options she could have chosen. And in fact, what their training tells them to do is to call for backup, back out, seek a position of cover and concealment and wait for backup to arrive. But that wasn't happening here. Investigators want to know why Amber made the decision to open the apartment door and fire. They turned to her mobile phone for clues around the time she shot both them, John. Their search uncovers highly suspicious activity. What we learned is that Officer Geiger had deleted text messages after he'd just been shot. Why are you deleting evidence? What are you trying to hide? On the night, Amber Guyger fatally shot both him, John. Investigators learned she had a prolonged phone call with her partner at the Dallas PD. The call ended just minutes before the encounter. She was on the phone for over 16 minutes with her partner, who there is evidence that she was in a relationship with. We don't know what that conversation was, but we know that prior to that, there was some sexting they were planning to meet even later that evening. So it wasn't like she was on her way home to go to bed. I mean, it's clear that for lack of a better word, she's she's preoccupied. Even more concerning to investigators is mobile phone evidence of a possible cover up after the shooting. Officer Geiger had deleted text messages to the same partner that she had communicated with that evening. One of them said, And I'm paraphrasing, I need you hurry up. But the second one was that I, after I left up, in my opinion, is a pretty revealing statement as to her realizing what she did was wrong. But secondly, what was more alarming to me is that they were deleted. Investigators go further back into Amber Tech's history and uncover more troubling exchanges. We discovered text messages that were racist text messages about pepper spraying protesters at the Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade about her fellow police officers who are black. Can I say that she shot and killed Beau because she's racist and he was a black man? Absolutely not. I can't say that, but it does call into question. It just makes you wonder about implicit biases. I strongly believe if she opened the door and saw another white, female or white male, she probably would have asked the questions, Who are you? What are you doing here? If Amber Guyger asked my brother one question, he would still be here, but she didn't. He said, Hey, hey, hey. Aggressively in her statement, you hear things like aggressive and show me your hands. And you know, people that don't show me your hands must mean this. It's cool. Clearly, to me, indicating that we're setting the grounds for self-defense. But what did Mr John do that was aggressive? I can't see where his hands are going. And so at that point, I feel like you're going to kill me and I know what you're going to kill me when the medical examiner's autopsy report comes in. Amber self-defense argument is dealt a serious blow. In Mr. John's case, the trajectory of the bullet through his body was very steeply downward. The entrance wound was actually right here on the left side of the chest, but we recovered the bullet from a muscle all the way down to the abdominal cavity next to the spine. Mrs. Geiger was reportedly five foot three inches tall. Mr. John was six foot one inch tall, so if they were both standing upright and Mrs. Geiger fired the weapon at Mr. John, the trajectory would have been at an upward angle. However, it was the reverse. It was at a sharp downward angle. The only two reasonable explanations is that he was either rising from the sofa when he was shot or he was crouched down, cowered down. The trajectory of the gunshot wound challenges any claim that she would make, that he was standing in front of her aggressively coming at her. Another thing we found out in the autopsy was that Beau was shot directly through the chest, which is consistent with officers training when shooting to kill. Investigators believe that firing a gun with the intent to kill was far from Amber Guyger only option, but others see her actions in a different light. When Amber Guyger goes up to the door and she's thinking, Is somebody break into my apartment at that point, is she a citizen or does she flip the switch? And is she thinking like a police officer? And it's time to handle the call, because that's what cops do. That's what we do. We see a crime. We have an answer. We handle it in my mind. We have intent. And the intent was to go in there and shoot and kill the threat, given the facts that we have here. There is no justified reason for her killing and taking his life. That is murder. I was praying for murder charges. I didn't want his murder to go unpunished. The Dallas District Attorney's conclusion of murder stands in contrast to the manslaughter charge brought by the Texas Rangers. The Rangers felt that Aboagye, whose actions were justified, which would be a manslaughter, and our office felt that this was intentional killing, which would be a murder. A grand jury will ultimately make the decision as to the potential charge. It could go either way, including the possibility that there are no criminal charges in amber. Guyger gets to walk free. It's nearly three months after the fatal shooting of both them, John, who was unarmed when he was killed at home. A grand jury convenes to decide on whether to charge Amber Guyger with manslaughter or murder. The grand jury returned an indictment of murder and that for me was the first phase of justice for both them. But an indictment for murder doesn't guarantee justice. Amber pleads not guilty. We now turn our intentions to the trial. It's quite clear that this is going to be a huge obstacle to convict an officer for murder because juries typically don't want to see cops as the bad guys. The DA's office continues to work for close to a year until the case finally finds its way to court. That morning, I was extremely nervous. The first thing I wanted to do when I got inside of the courtroom was to look at Amber Guyger to look at my son's killer. I had no emotion when I first saw her in the courtroom. I was just ready to go through the entire process. I was more focused than I believe anybody else was in that courtroom. This was a trial that was going to be like nothing else that we had ever experienced. We get to finally go forth and seek justice for Bowe. But we know it's not going to be without a fight. My job is to try to focus on the neutral facts so that the jurors can see that this is a series of innocent mistakes that led to a terrible tragedy, but that this is not a crime in the first four days of trial. The state presents evidence and witnesses to prove Amber Guyger did not act in self-defense when she killed both them, John. It was our burden to convince that jury beyond a reasonable doubt that this was murder and it was not justified. Then on day five, the defense brings their key witness to the stand. Take your anger directly, Amber Renee Geiger. Most of the time, as a defense lawyer, you don't put your client on the stand because the stakes are so high. But we knew that ambers only chance was to look the jury, and I tell them how remorseful she was and explain what she did and why she did it. And. And you've got to let them know and you fire. Why did you fire look so scared? I was scared. Let's get it. She started crying and going on and on. And that made me feel even worse. I believe her responses to her attorney was orchestrated. The theme that I saw was more pity for herself than pity for Beau's family and the fact that she took that life. Following the defense's questioning, the state steps up to cross-examine Amber. OK, let's talk about your 9-1-1 call. You said I shot a man thinking he was in my apartment. I did say that you did not express one time if he was armed. I did not. You didn't say one time that he put you in fear. I did not. As a defense lawyer, you're on pins and needles, hoping that the client doesn't get walked into a trap. As the questioning is unfolding, I can see where the prosecutor is going. You said you saw him walk. Yes. Coming towards you. Yes. That's when you decided to shoot twice. Yes, sir. Is that what you were intending? Yes, sir. She's got that deer in the headlights. Look, she's starting to just agree with everything he says, which as a lawyer, you know, is a red flag. You hope that she handles the trap in the right way. Watching the cross-examination was while it was just an experience I can't even describe on day five of the trial of Amber Guyger for the killing of both them, John. The prosecution takes aim at Amber Self-Defense claim. When you shot Mr. Zhang, you knew you were using deadly force against. Yes. And when you shot at him twice, you intended to kill him. Yes, sir. She told the jury she told everyone in that courtroom that she intentionally shot both them, John, to kill him. You can present all the evidence in the world. There's nothing stronger, although I heard the magic words from Amber Guyger. I was aware that the jury needed to also hear the same words that I heard in order for them to return a guilty verdict on the eighth day of the trial. The defense rests and the state addresses the jury for the last time. A guilty verdict in this case does not mean you hate police. This has to do with that defer making unreasonable decisions that put her in that seat and bow in the ground when the jury left and the door closed. I broke down because it was out of our hands at that point. The next day, the jury returns with a verdict. It was nerve wracking. There is still a very real possibility that they could come back and say not guilty. We, the jury, unanimously find the defendant, Amber Guyger, guilty of murder as charged in the indictment sheet. Everything that was pent up in my system for the entire year just exploded. It was just this relief that God had answered my prayers. My mom basically screamed, Thank God. And I saw my dad with tears in his eyes. It was just unbelievable. We hear guilty for murder. You just think finally, it's the right decision. It's the right decision. You have to show that this can't go unpunished, that Bo's life mattered and that he deserved justice when that verdict was read. You could hear a roar in the hallways. We had gotten the first murder conviction of a police officer in Dallas County in a very, very long time from day one. You're fighting for justice. And when you get that conviction and you're done fighting, all that's left is the grief. That's when I think I started actually grieving for my brother. The day after the verdict, the court holds a sentencing hearing and offers both thems family a chance to face amber and make an impact statement. I declined because I didn't even think of what I could see to Amber Guyger and then Brant shot up. He came up and said, I do it. Both Ms. Younger brother Brandt takes the stand. I walked up and I sat there and I was lost. I had no thought of what I was going to say. I don't want to. Say twice or for the hundredth time how much you've taken from us. I think you know that if you truly are sorry, I forgive you. I forgave Amber Guyger. I can't say that is exactly what both them would have wanted, but I can say that it's something that we both would have agreed on. That would be the right thing to do. I don't know if this is possible, but can I give her a hug? Please. Please. Yes. It was remarkable this young man taught all of us a lesson, he taught us that you can forgive but still seek justice. When he forgave Amber Guyger, I was proud of him. He showed more courage than I did because I have not gotten to that stage. It's very, very, very hard. I miss him tremendously. I miss both arms voice. I miss our conversations. I miss being with him. We had so many plans. I really, really miss him. Amber Guyger was sentenced to 10 years in prison and will be eligible for parole in 2024. In 2021, the city of Dallas renamed a portion of South Lamar Street, where both men lived to both them. John Boulevard, the official address for the Dallas police headquarters, also now bears both MS name.
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