A slain Black victim of police brutality will live on in Dallas via a four-mile stretch of road in the city. As CBS 11 reported, the Dallas City Council recently approved a measure to rename a street after the late Botham Jean.
The strip on South Lamar Street between Interstate 30 and South Central Expressway — where Jean lived in his apartment complex — will be designated Botham Jean Boulevard.
“This street on which he chose to live and the street on which he died can serve as a lasting memory of the upstanding resident who loved Dallas so much. I’m grateful South Lamar is being renamed to Botham Jean Boulevard, but it doesn’t bring my son back,” Jean’s mother, Allison Jean, told Dallas News.
Jean was shot and killed in his home in September of 2018 after off-duty officer Amber Guyger stormed into the unlocked apartment. She fired at him with the understanding that he’d raided her home, but later realized she was on the wrong floor.
“The renaming of Lamar Street in my mind is a gesture to honor Botham and what he meant to the city of Dallas, and the litigation is to seek accountability for what was done to him,” Allison continued. “It so happens that the city is involved in both, but I don’t see how one connects with the other, and I thought to do so was low.”
Guyger was sentenced to a decade in prison on murder charges in connection to the fatal shooting. She appealed the conviction, arguing she acted in self-defense though she wasn’t actually in her apartment. The cop instead asked to be charged with criminally negligent homicide, which would result in a shorter sentence.
Jean’s family sued the city of Dallas, insisting the police department be held accountable for their role in his death. The civil lawsuit was initially dismissed, but the ruling was later reversed, giving Jean’s kin another opportunity to ”try and hold the City of Dallas accountable for its failures in training officers on appropriate use of force.”