Crime & Police

A little over a year ago, Kaitlin Bolger was in jail for gun smuggling — a felony in Texas. She was released in April 2017 and was expected to re-integrate into society with the mismatched men’s clothes on her back and a $50 check that she received upon release. “I…

A day before the voter registration deadline for the midterms, state Sen. Don Huffines issued a demand for an “emergency” Texas Senate committee hearing on voter registration fraud, particularly the rampant, unprosecuted cases of immigrants registering and voting illegally. At least Huffines seems to think it’s rampant, but then he…

Monday I wrote a column saying there is a chance under the law that fired Dallas police Officer Amber Guyger, who shot and killed an innocent man in his own apartment on Sept. 6, is not guilty of murder. The reader response was numerous and mostly angry with me, as…

In response to multiple deadly police shootings, the 2017 Texas Legislature, led by Dallas state Sen. Royce West, passed the Community Safety Education Act. West’s bill requires all high school students, new drivers and police officers in Texas to take a class on how to better interact with one another…

Last week The Dallas Morning News said in an editorial that Dallas police Chief Renee Hall did the right thing by firing a police officer who shot an innocent man in his own apartment: “It is right for Hall to expect better from her officers than the use of deadly…

A Mesquite police officer who shot an unarmed man twice in the back last year will soon find out how much prison time he might serve, if any. Testimony concluded Tuesday in the trial of Derick Wiley, who is on trial for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon by a…

Dallas Police Chief U. Renee Hall intends to significantly change Dallas Police Department procedures for police shootings and supports strengthening Dallas’ citizens review board, she said Monday. Hall’s new proposals, once effective, will require Dallas police involved in shootings to give a statement immediately. Under current DPD policy, officers are…

Amber Guyger, the Dallas Police Department officer who shot and killed Botham Jean in Jean’s apartment a little over two weeks ago, has been fired. “Effective immediately, Amber Guyger is no longer with the Dallas Police Department. That decision and hearing was held this morning, at approximately 10 a.m.,” Hall…

Amber Guyger is still getting paid by the Dallas Police Department because going through the process necessary to fire her could compromise the criminal investigation of her shooting and killing Botham Jean in his own apartment on Sept. 6, DPD Chief U. Renee Hall said Thursday. After Jean’s death —…

There are inescapable similarities between the shooting for which former Mesquite cop Derick Wiley went on trial Tuesday and the one by Dallas Police Department Officer Amber Guyger, who shot and killed Botham Jean in Jean’s apartment, believing it was her own, on Sept. 6. Like Guyger, Wiley made a…

In the hours and days between shooting Botham Jean and her name being made public, Dallas police Officer Amber Guyger appeared to scrub as much of her life as possible from the internet. By the time Guyger’s name was widely known, she and her family had disappeared from Facebook, Twitter…

Dallas civil rights activists united Wednesday afternoon at Dallas City Hall to call on the City Council to create a citizens’ police review board with the power to subpoena and discipline officers. At a lunchtime press conference, organizers demanded that the city beef up its review board following the death…

Six years after it started, all four people behind a mortgage scam that bilked dozens of desperate North Texans out of hundreds of thousands of dollars are behind bars, Erin Nealy Cox, the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Texas said Tuesday. U.S. District Judge David Godbey sentenced Mark Demetri…

For now at least, ex-cop Roy Oliver is not facing additional felony charges following his August murder conviction for killing Mesquite teenager Jordan Edwards. Tuesday, the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office dropped four charges of aggravated assault by a public servant against Oliver, citing the district attorney’s need to allocate…

Two protests Monday night outside police headquarters captured the range of emotions aroused by the death of Botham Jean, who was killed last week in his apartment by Dallas police Officer Amber Guyger. One was a silent sit-in. The second, louder protest was met by police firing balls of pepper…

Details about exactly what happened the night Dallas police Officer Amber Guyger killed Botham Jean are going to be kept out of the public eye as Dallas County prosecutors continue to investigate, District Attorney Faith Johnson said Monday. The more information that gets out during the investigation, Johnson said, the…

We are easy talking about shootings according to the law. We all jump in. The one thing nobody ever seems to talk about is shooting according to the heart and soul.

Dallas police late Saturday said Amber Guyger is the officer who shot Botham Shem Jean. DPD’s announcement came after an attorney representing Jean’s family named Guyger, 30, as the off-duty cop who shot and killed Jean Thursday night. Lee Merritt posted Guyger’s name in a tweet Saturday afternoon.

After initially seeking a manslaughter warrant for the off-duty Dallas Police Department officer who shot and killed Botham Shem Jean after she entered Jean’s apartment, believing it was her own, DPD backed off, Dallas Police Chief U. Renee Hall said early Saturday afternoon. “We were in the process of obtaining…

Heavy gray storm clouds lingered over downtown Dallas on Friday night as Alyssa Kinsey crossed South Lamar with a bouquet of flowers in hand. Her eyes welling up with tears, she stopped in front of a makeshift memorial in front of Dallas Police headquarters. She paused, tears now streaming down…