Jordan Edwards and his friends were leaving a house party when police officer Roy Oliver fired into their vehicle. (Image courtesy of Mesquite Independent School District).
It turns out no teenagers were drinking or doing drugs at a neighborhood party in Balch Springs, Texas, where an officer ended up shooting and killing a 15-year-old boy.
A law enforcement official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, disclosed the details to The Dallas Morning News on Thursday, June 29. The revelation was accompanied by an autopsy report showing that high school freshman Jordan Edwards had no alcohol or illegal drugs in his system when he was fatally shot by former Balch Springs police officer Roy Oliver.
Oliver was fired within a week of the April 29 shooting and charged with the teen’s murder.
There were initial reports that teens were drinking at the party, but the law enforcement official said authorities found no drugs or alcohol at the house, except for an empty beer bottle tossed in a kitchen trash can. A woman who lived at the home at the time of the incident but who has since moved also was adamant that there was no alcohol or drugs at the party.
Oliver was one of two officers who responded to reports of drunken teens at a house party that night when they heard several shots ring out. Oliver and the other officer, Tyler Gross, were inside the house at the time and ran outside to see where the gunfire came from. The Dallas Morning News reported that Oliver ran to his patrol car to get his rife while Gross ran toward where he thought he heard the shots.
At this time, Edwards, his two brothers and two friends were leaving the party in a black Chevrolet Impala that belonged to the teen’s father. Edward’s brother was unable to drive up the road because it was blocked by police, so he backed up onto a nearby road, court documents showed.
Balch Springs Police Chief Jonathan Haber initially reported that the car Edwards was riding in backed down the road in an aggressive manner toward officers, prompting Oliver to fire his weapon into the car. However, footage of the incident showed that the teenagers were actually driving away when the officer opened fire.
Oliver fired his gun into the front passenger window, hitting Edwards in the head. The other teens in the car were unharmed.
Investigators later learned that the shots officers heard while inside the party actually came from the parking lot of a nearby nursing home, not the vicinity of Edwards and his friends.
Oliver’s murder case has yet to go to a Dallas grand jury, according to the newspaper. Just last week, he was charged with aggravated assault for a separate incident where he pulled out a gun on a driver who rear-ended him.
