Ted Cruz On Botham Jean Killing: "I Don't Think We Should Jump To Conclusions"
The Texas senator made the remark to address his opponent Beto O'Rourke, who agrees that the Dallas cop who shot Botham Jean should be held accountable for her actions.
Ted Cruz recently said that his opponent Beto O'Rourke and other Democrats were "quick to always blame the police officer," as well as spoke on the shooting of Botham Jean in his own apartment by police officer Amber Guyger.
"It may well be that two lives were destroyed that night," Cruz said in an interview with Houston's Fox affiliate. "That obviously the individual that was at home in his apartment and found himself murdered — that is horrific and a nightmare."
"She may have been in the wrong and if a jury of her peers believes that she behaved wrongly then she'll face the consequences," he added. "But I don't think we should jump to conclusions."
O'Rourke, however, believes that Guyger should be fired.
"I don't understand given the actions how anyone can come to any other conclusion," the Democratic nominee for Texas Senate said to an audience at a Dallas church on Friday. "When we all want justice and the facts and the information to make an informed decision, what’s released to the public? That he had a small amount of marijuana in his kitchen."
In related news, a Dallas Fox station faced backlash after tweeting a report about how marijuana was found in Jean's apartment.
Fox 4 obtained a copy of an unsealed police affidavit, which included a report of what was found inside Jean's apartment. Although numerous were discovered during the search, the news station highlighted one finding in particular — 10.4 grams of marijuana.
The station then tweeted the following: "DEVELOPING: Search warrant: Marijuana found in Botham Jean's apartment after deadly shooting."
Lee Merritt, the attorney representing Jean's family, criticized the searching of Jean's apartment and the focus on the marijuana found.
"They went in with the intent to look for some sort of criminal justification for the victim," Merritt said to Dallas ABC-affiliated TV station WFAA. "It's a pattern that we’ve seen before…we have a cop who clearly did something wrong. And instead of investigating the homicide — instead of going into her apartment and seeing what they can find, instead of collecting evidence relevant for the homicide investigation — they went out specifically looking for ways to tarnish the image of this young man."
Source: Fox 26 Houston