The Balch Springs Police Department announced Tuesday that it has fired Roy Oliver, the officer who fatally shot 15-year-old Jordan Edwards.
A few hours after giving initial statements and reviewing body-cam footage, Balch Springs Police Chief Jonathan Haber said that while Edwards' brother was at first backing down the street, he was actually driving away from the chaotic scene when police fired into the vehicle.
- The Balch Springs police officer who shot and killed a 15-year-old boy leaving a party over the weekend has been fired.
Balch Springs Police Chief Jonathan Haber told reporters a day earlier that police video showed the vehicle Edwards was riding in was driving away, not reversing toward officers, as the department had previously asserted.
The department's initial account was that Edwards was in a vehicle that was being driven in reverse in an "aggressive manner" when an officer opened fire, striking and killing him. Chief Haber said he made the decision based in part on the department's internal affairs investigation, which has been completed, and the body-camera footage from the two officers at the scene, Mr. Oliver and another unnamed officer.
The Dallas County District Attorney's Office will determine whether charges should be brought against Oliver.
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Lee Merritt, the Edwards family's attorney, has said that neither Edwards nor any of the other four teens in the auto were drinking at the party, none of them were armed with a weapon and none of them were initially sought by police. The Dallas County Sheriff's Department and the Dallas County Integrity Unit are holding separate investigations. "Their young lives will forever be altered".
Police Chief Jonathan Haber confirmed the firing of Oliver on Tuesday evening, according to the Associated Press. Odell Edwards wipes away tears as he sits with his wife, Charmaine Edwards, listening to their attorney Lee Merritt talking about the death of their son, Jordan Edwards, in a police shooting Saturday in Ba. The auto didn't stop, Balch Springs police say, despite Oliver's orders, so the police officer shot at the vehicle with a rifle. Police say that as officers dispersed the party they heard gunshots outside. Haber said Tuesday that Oliver, with the department since 2011, can appeal his termination. Despite ordering the auto to stop, the vehicle continued to back away.
"We are declaring (a) war on bad policing", Merritt said Monday.
According to written statement from the Edwards family, Jordan Edwards' brothers, Vidal and Kevon, witnessed his death. His 16-year-old brother was driving. "We anxiously await this officer's identification and arrest for the crime of murder", the family said in the statement.
The KERA Radio story: The family of Jordan Edwards releases a statement after he was killed by a police officer. "In fact, according to the video that I viewed the vehicle was moving forward as the officer was approached", Haber said. "Our family is working hard to deal with both the loss of our beloved Jordan and the lingering trauma it has caused our boys".
Merritt said the teen's death is a call to action against excessive police force.
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