Amber Guyger has taken the stand in her trial for the alleged murder of a man in his own apartment, which she mistook for hers.
Amber Guyger, a former Dallas police officer, testified in a Texas courtroom Thursday, saying “I feel like a piece of crap” following the shooting death of her neighbor.
Guyger, who wept on the witness stand, repeatedly said “I’m sorry,” after she shot and killed her neighbor Botham Jean on Sept. 6, 2018, when she said she mistook his apartment for hers and opened fire on him thinking there was an intruder in her home.
“I wish he had had the gun and had killed me. I never wanted to take an innocent person's life,” she said. “I was scared that he was going to come at me and kill me.”
Guyger lived on the third floor of the apartment complex, one floor below the victim.
Dramatic police bodycam footage was shown during the trial. The footage shows police trying to locate the apartment where Jean had been shot by Guyger. With guns drawn, they meet her in the hallway and follow her inside the apartment.
In the video, she repeats that she thought it was her apartment.
“I hate that I have to live with this, and ask God for forgiveness and I hate myself every single day,” she testified.
Jean, 26, an accountant, was watching TV and eating cereal when the officer walked into his apartment and opened fire, killing him. She testified that she yelled at jean to show her his hands prior to shooting him.
The defense claims 31-year-old Guyger simply made a mistake after working a 13-hour shift.
But prosecutors claim she was distracted after texting her police partner with whom she was in a sexual relationship. Hours earlier she had texted him that she was "super horny today” and minutes before the shooting she had finished up a 16-minute conversation with him.
After the shooting, she called 911, but at the same time texted her partner, saying, “I need you. I f***ed up.”
During her testimony, Guyger claimed she was “tired” and “just wanted to be home." However, prosecutors have argued that she was not drained and had made plans with her partner.
Guyger said her relationship with her partner had ended prior to the shooting, but they still flirted from time to time.
The former officer was fired from the Dallas Police Department in the wake of the shooting. Guyger faces a maximum of life in prison if found guilty of murder. She has pleaded not guilty.
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