Oliver shot Edwards four times with a rifle while Edwards was a passenger in a car that was leaving a party in the Dallas suburb of Balch Springs.

Oliver maintained from the beginning that he only fired into the car because he feared for the safety of his fellow officers, and that the car was driving towards another officer when he fired. He said the same in his testimony during the trial. Witnesses, including the other cops, disputed this claim, and body camera footage showed the car was moving away from the officers when Oliver fired.

Olinka Green, an organizer with the North Texas Action Committee, compared the Jordan Edwards case to the case of Emmitt Till. “August 28, 1955. 14-year-old Emmitt Till was brutally murdered because of racism and evil,” Green said. “Two white men were found not guilty of his murder by a jury of white men. Today, August 28, 2018 white police officer Roy Oliver was found guilty of murdering 15-year-old Jordan Edwards. 63 years of waiting for justice to be served in both cases. Today a small answer and a prayer was granted in the last case. Justice can be delayed but it never denied.”

North Texas Action Committee spokeswoman Jennifer Miller added, “We as a community must continue our fight from here. Yes, Oliver has been convicted, but we cannot let out a sigh of relief even if the jury decides to sentence him to the maximum sentence of 99 years, because this fight goes well beyond Jordan Edwards and Roy Oliver. This is a struggle that needs to be continually held against the racist power structures that allow police officers like Oliver to wield the power to take the lives of Black and brown people.”

Republican Texas governor Greg Abbott also appeared to welcome the conviction, writing on Twitter, “White Texas police officer found guilty of murder for fatally shooting black teen in car. This life should never have been lost.”

The prosecution was led by Dallas County First Assistant District Attorney Mike Snipes. Dallas District Attorney Faith Johnson also participated directly in some aspects of the prosecution. District attorneys in Texas are generally elected, but Faith Johnson was appointed to the post by Governor Abbott in 2016 to finish out the term of a district attorney who had resigned.

Dan Sullivan, a Dallas lawyer who says he has been involved in protests against police brutality for many years, said he found Abbott's comments remarkable. “If you had told me five years ago that in 2018 the Republican governor of Texas would be welcoming the murder conviction of a police officer I'd never have believed you.”

Sullivan continued, “Of course we still have a long way to go, but the fact that Texas Republicans have finally taken seriously the police murder of a Black child is stunning. And it is absolutely a response to Black Lives Matter, which has really caused a crisis in some political circles. Don't let anyone ever tell you protests can't work.”

#DallasTX #PeoplesStruggles #PoliceBrutality #Antiracism #Texas #PoliceCrimes #JordanEdwards

Dallas, TX – Dozens of protesters from the North Texas Action Committee marched through the Deep Ellum entertainment district, August 11, to demand justice for Jordan Edwards. Jordan Edwards was an unarmed, fifteen-year-old African American boy shot to death by a police officer in the Dallas suburb of Balch Springs on April 27, 2017.

Officer Roy Oliver, who fired four rifle bullets into the car, killing Jordan Edwards, is scheduled to go on trial next week for last year’s murder. Officer Oliver also faces charges related to an earlier road rage incident in which he pulled a gun on a woman who he was in a minor traffic accident with.

“Authority comes with accountability. You can't have a system that is built up on holding the populace accountable through harsher punishments on the civilians but the ones who are policing us, when they commit injustices, where is that same retribution, that same accountability that they put on us?” said Jay Harris, one of the organizers of North Texas Action Committee.

Marchers assembled at a secluded park on Swiss Avenue before marching into Deep Ellum, down Elm Street to Good Latimer, back along Main Street, and then back to the park. While marching, they chanted almost constantly. Chants included, “Say his name! Jordan Edwards!” and “Indict, convict, send those killer cops to jail. The whole damn system is guilty as hell.”

Protesters had signs calling for justice for Jordan Edwards and a large banner that read “Community unity against police terror.”

#DallasTX #PeoplesStruggles #PoliceBrutality #Antiracism #JordanEdwards #PoliceButality

Oliver is facing trial on August 16 for the murder of Jordan Edwards, a 16-year-old African American child, in the Dallas suburb of Balch Springs. On April 29, 2017, Roy Oliver was investigating alleged underaged drinking at a large party when people started to flee the party due to gunshots from outside a nearby business. Oliver saw a car driving away and fired three shots from an AR-15 rifle into the car, striking Edwards, one of the passengers, fatally in the head. Balch Springs police first claimed that the car had been backing up towards Oliver at the time Oliver fired, but police body camera footage showed the car was moving away.

Olinka Green, a volunteer with the North Texas Action Committee who attended the hearing as an observer, said that Faith Johnson, the Dallas County District Attorney, was personally in the courtroom for the hearing. “She was there to make sure things went the way they were supposed to go. She knows her political career is on the line.” Johnson, a Republican appointed to fill out the unexpired term of a DA who resigned in office, is facing a November election in a heavily Democratic county against a strong Democrat opponent.

Green said that it was an unusual experience to sit and look at a child murderer. “What I saw was pure evil,” she added.

The motion to change venue claimed that unfavorable pretrial publicity would make it impossible for Oliver to get a fair trial in Dallas County. But local attorney Dan Sullivan said, “Obviously Judge Birmingham ruled that was not the case. But I think the main effect of the motion, if it had been granted, is that the trial might have been moved to a county where jurors would be even less inclined to convict a police officer. Any other county around here would be more favorable to Roy Oliver than Dallas County. So, from the perspective of justice for the victims of police crimes, it's a good thing the trial is staying here.”

#DallasTX #PoliceBrutality #PeoplesStruggles #JordanEdwards