His son took care to avoid the police. Then he was killed by one.

He drove the speed limit. He kept his car in good condition. Instead of shorts or t-shirts, he wore Ralph Lauren dress shirts.

For years, before being fatally shot by a Dallas police officer who told him he had mistaken him for a burglar at home, Botham Shem Jean went out of his way to avoid police encounters. declared his mother, Allison Jean. during a visit to New York on Thursday with his lawyer, Lee Merritt.

Ms. Jean said her son had to explain life in America – where for black men in particular, a small traffic stop can become lethal – to his family, on the island of St. Lucia, in the Caribbean.

"I always told him," Why do you have to be so dressed? "Recalls Ms. Jean in an interview. "He said," Mom, I do not want to be arrested. I do not want them to think that I am someone that I am not. "

In 2016, when Mr. Jean moved to Dallas to do an internship at the PwC accounting firm, formerly known as PricewaterhouseCoopers, he made sure to transfer his car registration back into the 30s. days.

Unlike many mothers of African American boys, Ms. Jean, who ran several government agencies in St. Lucia, never spoke to her son, a risk insurance partner, to avoid the police.

"We are mostly black in St. Lucia," she said as she was preparing to return to the island for her son's burial. "I've never had to deal with racial issues." But the death of Mr. Jean is now presented as evidence that black Americans are not safe, even at home.

To what extent did his race play a role when Amber R. Guyger, an off-duty Dallas white policeman, arrived at Mr. Jean's door on the night of September 6-7? at the shoot. Even though it was a tragic mistake, Ms. Jean wondered if Agent Guyger would have fired as fast if her son had not been black.

A police affidavit indicates that Constable Guyger, who lived in the apartment directly below Mr. Jean, said that she had parked on the wrong floor in the adjacent parking lot and that she mistakenly believed she was going home. When she saw Mr. Jean, she thought she was meeting a burglar, which the affidavit said that she "described as a tall figure".

After firing his gun and issuing verbal orders, to which Mr. Jean did not respond, the affidavit says that she fired twice, hitting Mr. Jean once on the chest.

On Thursday, Ms. Jean suggested that Constable Guyger invoked the word "silhouette" to imply that she did not know Mr. Jean's race.

"She could have seen her complexion," said Ms. Jean. "I think the word silhouette has been deliberately used to erase the racial problem."

Robert L. Rogers, a lawyer representing Agent Guyger, declined to comment.

In another interview on Thursday, a neighbor who lives on the same floor as Mr. Jean said she also questioned Agent Guyger's claim that it was too dark to see in the apartment. The neighbor, who requested anonymity because she is also an employee of the city, said the corridor lighting is bright and illuminates inside the apartments when the door is opened.

"Even though all the lights are off, I can see what my furniture looks like, I can see everything in the apartment," said the neighbor, who said she heard a woman shout in a speech "…" & # 39; before shots occurred the night of the episode, after which she heard another voice, which she presumed to be that of Mr. Jean. Some of these stories may be consistent with Agent Guyger's statement that she gave verbal orders.

But the neighbor said the door could not have been ajar, as officer Guyger told police, according to the affidavit. "The doors are made then when you enter, they slam behind you," she said. "They are heavy."

The accounts of other neighbors in local newspapers have not been entirely consistent. At least one said Agent Guyger could be heard beating at the door asking to be allowed in, Merritt said, contrary to what she said.

In the affidavit, Agent Guyger said that after filming she had immediately called 911. It was around 10 pm.

Ms. Jean, who spoke to her son every day, had last spoken to her the day before at 9:30, she said. That night, "I looked at my watch and said, 'He could call soon,'" she said. "When he was 10, I thought it was strange that he did not call."