Liar White Cop Indicted for Murder of Jordan Edwards: Black Honor Student Shot Driving Away from Cops

From [HERE] A white police officer in a Dallas suburb was indicted by a grand jury on a murder charge for fatally shooting an unarmed black high school freshman in April with a high-powered rifle as the teenager and four others drove away from a house party, prosecutors said Monday.

The former officer, Roy D. Oliver II, an Iraq war veteran who was on the police force in the working-class city of Balch Springs, was also indicted on four counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon by a public servant.

The charges were announced by the Dallas County district attorney, Faith Johnson. If convicted of murder, Mr. Oliver, 37, could face a prison term of five to 99 years or life, the same range as the aggravated assault charges.

“These types of multiple charges against a police officer are historic in Dallas County,” said Daryl Washington, a lawyer for Jordan’s family in a lawsuit against Balch Springs and Mr. Oliver. “It sends a message to bad cops that you can no longer kill an unarmed person and get no billed.”

Mr. Oliver, who had been a Balch Springs officer since 2011, was fired in May after he shot Jordan Edwards, 15, on April 29. The department found that he had breached its policies after officials reviewed body camera footage.

The video showed Mr. Oliver firing his AR-15 rifle into a car that was traveling away from him and another officer. The car was carrying Jordan, his two brothers and two other teenagers; Jordan, who was sitting in the front passenger seat, was hit in the head.

Mr. Oliver was charged with murder on May 5 and turned himself in that night after the Dallas County Sheriff’s Department issued a warrant for his arrest.

Elizabeth Saab, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office, clarified the relationship between the May murder charge and Monday’s indictment. “There was probable cause to arrest him in May for murder, and that’s why the Sheriff’s Department issued the warrant for his arrest,” she said. Texas law “requires that every felony case go before a grand jury, which is part of the process.”

Ms. Johnson, the district attorney, said in a statement on Monday, “This is the very first time we have issued an arrest warrant for a police officer before the case was presented to a grand jury.”

“Previously, the process in police-involved shootings was to present the evidence to a grand jury and then let them decide,” she said. “However, just as we would in any other case where we believe there is probable cause, we issued an arrest warrant prior to a grand jury decision.”

Last month, in a separate case, a grand jury indicted Mr. Oliver on two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon by a public servant over accusations that he pulled a gun on a woman who had been involved in a car accident with him. Mr. Oliver was off duty and not in uniform at the time of the accident, about two weeks before Jordan’s killing.

Mr. Oliver has been out on bail on the aggravated assault charges and the original murder charge.