Hunt fiends in sex attack on 4-yr.-old
THE SOUND of gunfire led a 15-year-old straight-A student to leave a party in a Dallas suburb with his friends — only to be killed moments later by a bullet fired by a police officer’s rifle.
The family of Jordan Edwards — a popular freshman football player at Mesquite High School — demanded answers Monday about what led to the teen’s death at the hands of a Balch Springs, Tex., cop.
“We are declaring war on bad policing,” said the family’s attorney, Lee Merritt, adding in a release that the Balch Springs Police Department’s initial version of events was “transparently contrived in order to justify a defenseless act of murder.”
Jordan was shot in the head with a rifle at around 11 p.m. Saturday, after police received a call about a party where teens might have been drinking. Around 100 young people were at the party, The Dallas Morning News reported.
Police said that upon arrival, they heard gunshots. Merritt said it was the same noise that prompted Jordan and three friends to hop into a car that was driven by his older brother.
What happened next remains in dispute.
Balch Springs police said the car backed up, driving toward cops “in an aggressive manner.
Merritt, however, said that Jordan’s older brother was maneuvering out of a parking space when “they heard someone shout profanity at them.”
The person did not identify himself, but appeared to be a cop and was shining a flashlight at the car, Merritt said.
“Before the driver could respond, the unidentified police officer fired multiple shots at the vehicle,” Merritt said.
They drove away, but when they had gotten about a block away, the driver and other passengers realized that Jordan had been shot.
“They saw smoke coming from his head,” Merritt told CBS News.
A weapon was never recovered.
Jordan was black. The cop’s race and identity have not been reported.
The medical examiner ruled Jordan’s death a homicide, though that does not mean charges will be filed against the officer.
Merritt was flanked by Jordan’s parents, Charmaine and Odell Edwards, who did not speak and wiped away tears.
“We’ve heard excuses before in the past: You know why it happens, because the dads aren’t present. That excuse isn’t here,” Merritt said, alluding to police shootings of other unarmed black teens around the country in recent years. “Or the kid was violent. That excuse isn’t present here.”
Merritt added that police were constructing a “familiar narrative in the absence of weapons or any indication of actual danger.”
The officer has been placed on administrative leave as the Dallas County Sheriff’s Department and district attorney’s office conduct investigations. A 4-YEAR-OLD Queens girl may have been sexually assaulted by attackers who sneaked into her bedroom using a nearby ladder, authorities said Monday.
Police believe the assailant, or multiple assailants, got into her apartment on Francis Lewis Blvd. in Rosedale early Sunday.
The girl’s mother and father both work overnight shifts, and they left her asleep in a room she shares with three older brothers, police sources said.
When her parents came home, the little girl complained of pain. The parents noticed an open window and evidence of a possible sexual assault, sources said. The little girl told investigators three “bad boys” molested her, sources said.
Cops are asking anyone with information about to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS.