*The Balch Springs, Texas police officer who authorities said shot into a car Saturday, killing 15-year-old Jordan Edwards, was fired Tuesday.
The Police Department said Sunday that the officer, Roy Oliver, fired on a car carrying Edwards, a freshman at Mesquite High School in nearby Mesquite, Tex., because the car was reversing down a street toward the officer in an “aggressive manner.”
But police chief Jonathan Haber said at a news conference Monday afternoon that bodycam video of the incident showed the direct opposite; that the officer fired when the car was “moving forward as the officers approached,” according to The Associated Press. The Dallas County medical examiner’s report ruled the death a homicide caused by a “rifle wound” to the head.
Haber said he “misspoke” when he said the car Jordan was riding in Saturday night was moving “aggressively” toward police.
“I take responsibility for that,” Haber said. He added that the officer’s behavior “did not meet our core values.”
Oliver, who was hired in 2011, had been placed on administrative leave but hasn’t been charged or arrested in the fatal shooting of the straight-A honor student.
The Edwards family released a statement through family lawyer S. Lee Merritt, asking the public to refrain from protests and marches at this time as they prepare for Jordan’s funeral and try to cope with the loss.
“What we desire only second to having our beloved Jordan back, is JUSTICE FOR JORDAN,” the statement said.
***Please Read This and Respect the Request of the Family!*** pic.twitter.com/t6kaOXn9yQ
— S. Lee Merritt (@MeritLaw) May 2, 2017
Below, details of what led to the fatal shooting, via CNN:
Officers broke up a house party in response to reports of underaged drinking. Balch Springs police spokesman Pedro Gonzalez said the terminated officer was the second officer on the scene. The other officer who responded is still employed. Gonzalez said officers were looking for the owners of the house when shots were allegedly heard in the area, creating chaos right before Jordan was shot.
Haber declined to say whether any shots were fired or whether the boys in the car were armed, citing the ongoing investigation.
Police said the officers confronted a vehicle reversing down the street. The vehicle continued to reverse and back into the main roadway despite commands from the officer. The vehicle pulled forward as the officer continued to approach it giving verbal commands, and then continued on the main roadway driving away from the officer.
Jasmine Crockett, another Edwards family attorney, said Jordan and his two brothers were among the five people in the car when the officer fired.
“As law enforcement approached the house, they saw the lights. They began to run, as many kids began to run,” Crockett said Tuesday on “Primetime Justice with Ashleigh Banfield” on HLN. “As they’re running to the car, they actually heard approximately five shots.”
“And then ultimately the gunfire is turned on them,” she added.
One officer fired a rifle into the car as it was driving away from the party. Jordan, the front-seat passenger, was struck in the head. The officer fired three shots into the car, Merritt told CNN, based on eyewitness accounts from the other boys in the car. Jordan’s 16-year-old brother and others were detained and questioned, but the boys were not arrested nor charged, Merritt said.
Crockett said Jordan was a teenager who was both interested in academics and sports. And he was a social butterfly who was the one who wanted to go to the party, she said. “I’m concerned about how that’s going to weigh on his older brother because he had been tugging at his older brother about going to this party, and ultimately it resulted in his death,” Crockett said.
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