As public debate raged over what criminal charge a Dallas police officer should face after she shot a man in his own apartment, a City Council member has suggested a similar fight was playing out in the Police Department.

Council member Philip Kingston posted Sunday on Facebook that a judge had refused to sign a warrant that would have allowed police to arrest Officer Amber Guyger on a manslaughter charge. Kingston wrote that the judge, whom he did not identify, would not sign the warrant because murder was the appropriate charge.

"Legally, it's murder because the shooter's intent was to kill," he wrote. "She may have a reasonable (or unreasonable) mistake of fact as to whether the shooting was justified, but that doesn't change the initial charge."

But Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings insisted Sunday that Kingston's assertions about a conflict among authorities were "categorically wrong and dangerous."

Dallas City Council member Philip Kingston (left) earlier this month. (Tom Fox / Staff Photographer)

Rawlings said he was appalled by the statement from Kingston, who has had an often-contentious relationship with the mayor.

“I’m embarrassed that it came from a City Council person,” Rawlings said repeatedly. “And I want to set the record straight.”

Dallas police never discussed the law with the judge, he said. A judge was called to determine whether he would be available to sign a warrant if needed. But no warrant was sought before the investigation was turned over to the Texas Rangers on Friday.

Sunday evening, Guyger was arrested on a manslaughter charge and booked into the Kaufman County jail.

Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings spoke at a press conference at Paul Quinn College on Saturday about the shooting death of Botham Shem Jean in Dallas. Jean was shotto death by a Dallas police officer in his home on Thursday night. (Shaban Athuman / Staff Photographer)

Rawlings said that the morning after after Guyger shot 26-year-old Botham Jean, the Police Department updated him every 30 minutes. Since then, he has been in regular contact with Police Chief U. Renee Hall, he said.

Hall, too, strongly disputed Kingston's take on how the investigation unfolded, calling it "totally inaccurate."

"None of that is true," she said.

Kingston declined to discuss his Facebook comment, which appeared on a news story he posted. In the comment, Kingston wrote that his information did not come from Dallas police but from "other sources." He did not say who.

A spokesman for the Texas Rangers declined to discuss the investigation.

A detailed account of what led to Jean's shooting hasn't been officially released, but Rawlings said Sunday that Guyger had parked on the wrong floor of the South Side Flats in the Cedars.

She had just gone off-duty and was still in uniform, and she has told police she mistook his apartment for her own.

Dallas police Officer Amber Guyger is accused of fatally shooting Botham Shem Jean on Thursday after apparently mistaking his apartment at South Side Flats for her own. (Facebook)

In his Facebook post, Kingston offered a chronology of how the case unfolded after the shooting: "On Friday at around 7:00 a.m. DPD determined that this was not an officer involved shooting ("OIS") and decided to seek an arrest warrant, but there was an internal disagreement over whether to charge the crime as murder or manslaughter. ... Someone apparently wanted the officer charged only with manslaughter; so DPD called a judge who told them he would not sign a warrant for manslaughter because that wasn't the crime they were describing. But he would sign a warrant for murder."

However, Dallas County First Assistant District Attorney Mike Snipes, the top prosecutor under District Attorney Faith Johnson, said no warrant was ever presented to a judge "to the best of my knowledge" before the Texas Rangers took over the investigation

The police chief has said that her officers were going to seek a manslaughter warrant but that the Rangers asked them to hold off while they investigated.

Botham Shem Jean

Kingston's version of events is that the department asked for the Rangers' assistance after the judge refused to sign a warrant.

He said the Texas Rangers, who have taken over the investigation, “don’t want the case and aren’t working it — leaving precisely no one in charge."

“The result is that Mr. Jean is on a slab while the officer can sleep in her own bed,” Kingston said.

Rawlings said he has heard nothing to indicate that the Rangers were unwilling to investigate. He said he spoke with Gov. Greg Abbott and the police chief about the Rangers’ assistance.

“Never once did he or anybody imply the Rangers didn’t want the case,” Rawlings said.

Staff writer Dana Branham contributed to this report.