Bullet strucks Edwards after shattering the window of the car he was in
A white Texas police officer has been charged with murder in the shooting of a black teenager for which the officer was fired, according to an arrest warrant.
Roy Oliver turned himself in after the warrant was issued on Friday, the Dallas County Sheriff’s Department said.
He was charged over the April 29 shooting death of 15-year-old Jordan Edwards in the Dallas suburb of Balch Springs.
In a statement, the sheriff’s office cited evidence that suggested Oliver “intended to cause serious bodily injury and commit an act clearly dangerous to human life that caused the death”.
Oliver, 37, fired a rifle at a car of teenagers leaving a party, striking and killing Edwards.
The shooting led to protests calling for Oliver to be charged. About 200 people attended a vigil on Thursday night in Balch Springs.
Oliver was fired on Tuesday for violating department policies.
The shooting, which took place in a primarily black and Hispanic neighbourhood, stoked simmering tensions of perceived racial bias in US policing
Edwards and his two brothers and two other teenagers were driving away from an unruly house party in Balch Springs late on Saturday night when Oliver opened fire on their vehicle.
The bullets shattered the front passenger-side window and struck Edwards.
Balch Springs police said officers were responding to a disturbance and heard multiple gunshots. They came across the vehicle with the teens and ordered it to stop, but it pulled away.
Police initially said the car Edwards was in was backing towards a police officer but Chief Jonathan Haber reversed his statement after viewing police video, stating that the car was driving away from the officer when he fired a rifle at the vehicle, fatally wounding Edwards.
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