A 15-year-old boy, Jordan Edwards, was killed by an officer, Roy Oliver, in a Dallas suburb over the weekend. Edwards was a freshman at Mesquite High School. He was a football player who died after leaving a party with his friends.
Police officers were called to inspect reports of underage drinking at the house Edwards was in. When officers arrived at the location, they reported that they heard gunshots. After a car of teenagers reversed towards the officers, Oliver reportedly opened fire and shot Edwards in the head. Later, Edwards died at the hospital.
The Atlantic reports that on Monday, Chief Jonathan Haber announced that, after watching the body-cam footage, the car Edwards was in was perhaps driving away. It was not reversing toward the police.
According to The New York Times, Lee Merritt, a lawyer for the Edwards family said, “There were no weapons involved; there was no aggressive behavior; these were not suspects.” He continued, “The lone motive they had for the murder was that the vehicle was being used as a weapon, and now that is no longer there.”
On Tuesday evening, the police department announced that they fired the officer, Roy Oliver. Merritt thanked Chief Haber for admitting the mistakes of the department. However, will the termination of Roy Oliver be enough?
“If justice is to be had, by now a warrant should been issued,” Merritt told CNN. “There’s more than enough probable cause to arrest this officer.”
