MEDIA ADVISORY
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 10, 2018
CONTACT:
Sara Mokuria, 214-454-3980, sara.mokuria@gmail.comJohn Fullinwider, 214-683-2493, jhfullinwider@gmail.comCollette Flanagan- collette@mapbdallas.com
Mothers Against Police Brutality calls upon Dallas Police Chief U. Renee Hall to fire offer Amber Guyger, who shot to death Botham Shem Jean on Thursday, September 6. Mr. Jean was unarmed when officer Guyger, for reasons yet to be explained, killed him in his own apartment last Thursday night.
Guyger was charged with manslaughter yesterday, booked into Kaufman County Jail, and released on a $300,000 bond.“We expect Chief Hall to fire this officer immediately,” said Collette Flanagan, who founded MAPB in 2013 after her son, unarmed 25-year-old Clinton Allen, was fatally shot seven times by a Dallas officer. “Regardless of how the case is ultimately decided in court, this officer has forfeited any right to serve on the Dallas police force.”
“The official version of events in the shooting death of Botham Jean is all over the map,” said Sara Mokuria, co-founder of MAPB, whose father, Tesfaie Mokuria, was killed by Dallas officers in 1993.
“The, “I -was- in- the -wrong apartment” version lacks all credibility. And the mayor’s let’s-all-come-together-moment is so tone deaf and false that it can only be taken as a cynical attempt to spin a murder.”
Guyger’s previous, non-fatal shooting in 2017 was found to be justified, after she shot a suspect who had allegedly taken away her Taser weapon.“The charge should be murder, but even on a manslaughter charge Guyger is not being treated the way any other suspect would be treated,” added Ms. Flanagan. “Suppose it was the other way around, and Mr. Jean had fatally shot Guyger after “mistakenly” entering her apartment. Do you think for minute he would have been granted bail? Sent home on paid leave?”
Click here to read MAPB’s complete 9 steps to Fair and Just Policing.
About Mothers Against Police Brutality
Mothers Against Police Brutality (MAPB) Mothers Against Police Brutality (MAPB) is an emerging, Dallas-based multi-generational, multi-racial, and multi-ethnic coalition uniting people nationally, from all walks of life, to hold law enforcement agencies more accountable. Collette Flanagan founded MAPB in 2013 after her son, Clinton Allen, an unarmed young man in custody, was shot to death by a Dallas police officer. MAPB works for an immediate end to the use of deadly force against unarmed persons; for changes in the overall use of excessive and deadly force to stop unnecessary injury and death; for changes in the treatment of mentally ill persons by police; for assistance to the families of the victims of police violence; for transparency and objectivity in the investigations of police misconduct; and for other changes in police policies and procedures to protect the lives of civilians, with a particular focus on protecting the lives of African American and Latino youth. Transforming grief into determination, Flanagan and MAPB are leading the charge to change deadly force policy in Dallas and throughout the U.S., to support families who have lost loved ones to police violence, and to help restore trust between the police and the communities they are sworn to serve and protect.