Oct. 6 (UPI) — The key witness and neighbor of the convicted Dallas police officer in the murder of another neighbor was killed five miles from the apartment complex, authorities said Saturday.
Joshua Brown, who originally lived in the same South Side Flats apartments in downtown Dallas as murdered Botham Jean and convicted Amber Guyger, was slain about 10:30 p.m. Friday in the parking lot of his new home near the city’s Medical District, Dallas police said.
Brown, 28, testified about the night Jean was killed on Sept. 6, 2018. He was in the hallway on the fourth floor of the building when he heard what he thought sounded like “two people meeting by surprise.”
He testified he heard two gunshots.
Guyger was off-duty but in uniform when she shot Jean, mistaking him as an intruder in her apartment. But it was Jean’s home and her apartment was on a different floor.
On Tuesday, she was convicted, and one day later she was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
“He bravely came forward to testify when others wouldn’t,” Dallas County prosecutor Jason Hermus, the lead prosecutor in the case, told The Dallas Morning News. “If we had more people like him, we would have a better world.”
On Friday night, police found him on the ground with multiple gunshot wounds.
He died at Parkland Memorial Hospital.
No suspect has been announced.
Because he wasn’t carrying any ID cards, police couldn’t identify Brown until the medical examiner made a positive ID and notified the next of kin.
“He was ambushed at his apartment complex as he got out of his car and shot at close range,” Lee Merritt, a civil rights attorney who represents the Jean family posted on Facebook.
Witnesses told police a silver four-door sedan sped out of the parking lot after they heard several gunshots near the Atera apartments.
“Brown lived in constant fear that he could be the next victim of gun violence,” Merritt wrote. “Brown deserves the same justice he sought to ensure the Jean family.”
Merritt wrote he had spoken with Brown’s mother and “she is devastated. We all are … We need answers.”
The attorney said Brown “had no known enemies. He worked for a living.”
Brown attended college in southern Florida, where he studied interdisciplinary sciences. He previously was a roofing contractor for a few years and was managing four Airbnb’s in Los Angeles, Atlanta and Dallas, CNN reported.
Brown said he met Jean for the first time in the hallway of the South Side Flats on the day Jean was killed.
