DALLAS, TX. (THECOUNT) — Joshua Brown, a key witness in the recent Amber Guyger murder trial, was fatally shot Friday night at an apartment complex near Dallas’ Medical District, authorities said.
Brown, 28, a neighbor of South Side Flats apartments shooting victim, Botham Jean, was shot dead around 10:30 p.m. Friday in the 4600 block of Cedar Springs Road, in Dallas, Texas.
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Brown lived across the hall from Jean and testified about the night he was killed.
Dallas County prosecutor Jason Hermus, the lead prosecutor in the Guyger case, said Saturday that Brown stood up at a time when others won’t say what they know, reports stlucianewsonline
“He bravely came forward to testify when others wouldn’t, ” Hermus said. “If we had more people like him, we would have a better world.”
On Friday night, several witnesses flagged down police and directed them to Brown’s location. Police found him on the ground with multiple gunshot wounds.
He was taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital, where he died from his injuries.
Witnesses told police they heard several gunshots and saw a silver four-door sedan speeding out of the parking lot.
No suspect description had been released.
Earlier this week, a complaint has been fired against Guyger trial judge, Tammy Kemp, after she gave the former cop her personal bible following sentencing her to 10 years in jail.
Freedom From Religion Foundation activists filed a complaint Thursday against Kemp for emerging from her chambers with a personal bible she then presented to the woman convicted of killing her neighbor.
Organization co-presidents Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor are asking for the commission to investigate the actions as a violation under the Texas Code of Judicial Conduct.
The foundation claims Judge Kemp’s “proselytizing actions overstepped judicial authority” and has asked the Texas State Commission on Judicial Conduct to investigate.
Guyger was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the murder of Botham Jean, whom she says she fatally shot after she entered his apartment thinking it was her own.
Jean’s brother made headline after asking Judge Kemp if he could hug the defendant following her sentencing.
It was then she gave Guyger a hug and the Bible, telling her that her “assignment,” was to read John 3:16.
“You can have mine. I have three or four more at home,” she said. “This is the one I use every day. This is your job for the next month. It says right here. John 3:16. And this is where you start. ‘For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life,'” reports KMOV.
While it is acceptable for Kemp to express her faith as a private citizen, the complaint argues, was representing the US government at the time.
“We, too, believe our criminal justice system needs more compassion from judges and prosecutors. But here, compassion crossed the line into coercion. And there can be few relationships more coercive than a sentencing judge in a criminal trial and a citizen accused and convicted of a crime,” the complaint said.
DEVELOPING::
Geo quick facts: Dallas, a modern metropolis in north Texas, is a commercial and cultural hub of the region. Downtown’s Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza commemorates the site of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963. In the Arts District, the Dallas Museum of Art and the Crow Collection of Asian Art cover thousands of years of art. The sleek Nasher Sculpture Center showcases contemporary sculpture – wikipedia.