Cop Who Killed Jordan Edwards Fired

By Kenrya Rankin May 03, 2017

On Saturday (April 29) an officer of the Balch Springs Police Department shot and killed unarmed 15-year-old Jordan Edwards. Now, that officer has been identified and fired from the force, which operates in a suburb of Dallas. Ex-officer Roy Oliver was the shooter. He is White. Edwards was Black.

“From our policies, which I went by, there were violations. I acted on them,” Balch Springs Police Chief Jonathan Haber told press yesterday (May 2). Haber did not detail Oliver’s violations. The Dallas Morning News reports that the department closed its internal investigation yesterday, but Edwards has ten days to appeal his termination. The Dallas County Sheriff’s Department and the Dallas County District Attorney’s Public Integrity Unit are still investigating the shooting.

The Washington Post’s officer-involved killings tracker says that Edwards is the youngest of the 333 people killed by officers in 2017.

The Edwards family issued a statement via attorney Lee Merrick. In it, the family says it is grateful for the termination, but that Oliver needs to be arrested “for the crime of murder.”

The statement also talks about the trauma the other four boys who were in the car experienced as the result of both the shooting and their subsequent interactions with the police. “They were immediately treated as common criminals by other officers; manhandled, intimidated and arrested, while their brother lay dying in the front seat.” Read the full statement below.

Funeral services for Edwards are planned for Saturday (May 6). The family has asked supporters to hold off on potential protests until after the funeral.