Texas officer who killed black teen found guilty

A Dallas County jury has convicted former Balch Springs, Texas, police officer Roy Oliver of murder in the high-profile shooting death of 15-year-old Jordan Edwards.

The verdict, handed down Tuesday, was a rare victory for civil rights activists seeking justice for the dozens of unarmed black men and boys who have been killed by white police officers.

As Judge Brandon Birmingham read the verdict, sobs came from the gallery of the packed courtroom. The last time an on-duty police officer in Dallas County was convicted of murder was in 1973.

“I’m just so thankful,” Odell Edwards, Jordan’s father, told reporters. “Thankful, thankful.”

Oliver, 38, fired an MC5 rifle into a Chevrolet Impala carrying Jordan and two of his brothers as it pulled away from a high school house party one night in April of 2017. Jordan, who was struck in the head, died later at a hospital.

Police initially said the vehicle had backed up toward Oliver “in an aggressive manner,” but body camera video showed the car was moving away from him and his partner.

Oliver has said he feared for his life and his partner’s safety.

“I had to make a decision. This car is about to hit my partner,” Oliver testified in the trial. “I had no other option.”

After a weeklong trial, it took the jury one day to reach a verdict.

Jordan’s death echoes other police shootings of young black males that have riled the country. But no convictions were handed down in those cases.

In November 2014, Cleveland police got a 911 call about someone brandishing a pistol near a park — the weapon, the caller said, was “probably fake.” But in an incident captured on camera, a police cruiser pulled into the park and officer Timothy Loehmann jumped out and opened fire. Within seconds, 12-year-old Tamir Rice was dead.

Even before Tamir’s death, the U.S. Department of Justice had been investigating the Cleveland Police Department. A month after his shooting, it released a report saying Cleveland police displayed a pattern of using unnecessary force.

A year later, a grand jury decided not to indict Loehmann in Tamir’s death, saying he had reason to fear for his life.

In September 2016, in Columbus, Ohio, police shot and killed Tyre King, 13, who was carrying a BB gun while running from police. A grand jury declined to file criminal charges against the officer who killed him.