Amber Guyger Released on Parole After Seven Years for Killing Botham Jean

Updated 23:59 UTC

DALLAS. Amber Guyger, the former Dallas police officer convicted of murder for shooting her neighbour Botham Jean inside his own apartment in 2018, was released from a Texas prison on parole on Friday, October 16, 2026.

Guyger, 38, left the Christina Melton Crain Unit in Gatesville on Friday morning, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said. She had served seven years of the 10 year sentence a Dallas County jury gave her in October 2019 for the murder of Jean, who was 26. She will serve the rest of her sentence in the community under supervision until it expires in September 2029.

The night Jean was killed

Jean, an accountant at PricewaterhouseCoopers from St. Lucia, was in his living room, watching television and eating ice cream, on September 6, 2018, prosecutors said. Guyger, off duty but still in uniform after a long shift, parked on the wrong floor at the South Side Flats, where both lived. Her flat was on the third floor. Jean lived directly above her, on the fourth.

Guyger told a jury she entered his apartment by mistake, believed it was her own, and shot Jean with her service weapon because she thought he was a burglar. Dallas police fired her before her trial. A jury convicted her of murder on October 1, 2019. Prosecutors had asked for at least 28 years. The jury gave her 10.

At sentencing, Guyger apologised. Jean's younger brother, Brandt Jean, told her he forgave her and hugged her in the courtroom.

Why the board let her out

The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles granted Guyger parole on October 1, 2026, seven years to the day after her conviction. The board said her record showed no documented pattern of violent arrests or convictions, that she had kept a satisfactory record in prison, and that she had completed a treatment plan meant to improve her chances of holding full time work. It had denied her first request in 2024, after opposition from Jean's family and the Dallas County District Attorney's Office.

Her conditions are strict. According to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, she must check in regularly with a parole officer, accept home visits, meet employment requirements and follow travel restrictions. She cannot live in Dallas County, cannot contact Jean's family or Dallas police officers, and cannot leave Texas without approval.

Robert Rogers, one of her trial lawyers, told WFAA TV in Dallas this month that she has a place to live and a job lined up, and that she remains remorseful.

The family response

Jean's family opposed the release and asked for privacy. In a statement shared through the Botham Jean Foundation, the family noted they had just marked what would have been Jean's birthday, thanked people who keep saying his name, and asked to be left to process the news.

Lee Merritt, a civil rights lawyer who has represented the family, said he was deeply disappointed. He said the 10 year sentence was already only a fraction of what was lost, and that releasing Guyger after seven years made that loss feel smaller in the eyes of the system when it is not.

The Dallas Police Department said its thoughts remain with the Jean family and that parole decisions rest with the state board, not the department. The Dallas County District Attorney's Office declined to comment.

The street where the shooting happened was renamed Botham Jean Boulevard in 2021.