A Key Witness In the Amber Guyger Murder Trial Has Been Shot to Death in Dallas

Joshua Brown, a neighbor of Botham Jean and key witness in the murder trial of former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger, has reportedly been shot to death in the parking lot of another Dallas apartment complex.

Just 10 days ago, Brown testified that he never heard Guyger shout police commands to Jean before shooting him when she mistakenly wandered into his apartment, which was a key part of Guyger’s defense. Brown also said he watched through his own apartment’s peephole as Guyger paced the hallway talking into her cell phone following the shooting.

At 10:30 p.m. on the night of October 4, just two days after a jury sentenced Guyger to 10 years in prison for the murder of Botham Jean, police responded to reports of a shooting at the apartment complex Brown moved to following Jean’s murder in 2018. Though police have not released Brown’s name in connection with the shooting, on Twitter an attorney for the Jean family identified Brown, a former college football player and small business owner, as the victim, according to the Washington Post:

“Joshua Brown, who lived in the same apartment complex as Jean and Guyger and overheard their fatal encounter, was “shot several times by an unknown assailant” on Friday night, civil rights lawyer Lee Merritt said Saturday night on Twitter. Brown was a 28-year-old Lancaster, Tex., native and former University of South Florida football player who ran his own business in Dallas.

“His murder underscores the reality of the black experience in America,” Merritt wrote. ‘A former athlete turned entrepreneur — Brown lived in constant fear that he could be the next victim of gun violence, either state sanctioned or otherwise.’

Without mentioning Brown by name, a police statement said “Several witnesses heard several gunshots and observed a silver four-door sedan leaving the parking lot at a high rate of speed.” Dallas police have no suspects at the moment.