By Dana Branham
The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS — Jurors in the murder trial of a fired police officer who killed a 15-year-old last year are set to enter a second day of deliberations Tuesday. They will decide if former Balch Springs police officer Roy Oliver committed murder when he fired a rifle into a car full of teenagers, fatally striking Jordan Edwards.
Oliver is being tried on a murder charge and two counts of aggravated assault by a public servant.
Jordan and four other teens were leaving a Balch Springs party when Oliver fired inside their vehicle five times. The ninth-grader, who was unarmed, was struck in the back of the head and killed instantly. Police never found any weapons or alcohol in the car.
Five key moments from the trial, which began last week:
1. ‘I had no other option,’ Oliver testifies
Oliver testified in his own defense, telling jurors he felt he had to fire because he thought his partner, Officer Tyler Gross, was in danger of being run over.
“I had to make a decision. This car is about to hit my partner,” Oliver testified Thursday. “I had no other option.”
He said he thought he acted appropriately when he fired. But when he checked Jordan’s pulse and felt nothing, he was sickened by what he’d done, the fired officer said.
“It was a punch to the gut,” Oliver said. “My heart sank. For a minute there, it was hard to breathe.”
2. ‘I just wanted to get home,’ Jordan’s stepbrother testifies
Jordan’s stepbrother Vidal Allen was driving the car the night of the shooting. Guests at a house party ran and scattered when police arrived, and the five teens were in the car when they heard gunshots, which came from a nearby nursing home and were unrelated to the party.
“I was very scared,” Allen testified. “I just wanted to get home and get everyone safe.”
Gross shouted for the teen to stop the car, but Allen said he didn’t realize a police officer was yelling at him. Then, the teen heard Oliver fire. Allen drove away before he realized Jordan wasn’t responding, he told jurors.
3. What police video footage showed
Video from the night of the shooting shows Oliver and Gross standing outside the house party minutes before they heard shots, which sent teenagers running and screaming.
Gross ran toward the gunfire, and Oliver ran to his car to get his rifle before he rejoined Gross, who was trying to stop the car carrying Jordan and four others.
After the shooting, Oliver asks Gross: “You all right?”
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Gross answers.
“He was trying to hit you,” Oliver said. Gross testified that he wasn’t afraid the car was going to hit him.
Later, as Allen got out of the car, walking backward toward police officers, he begged them not to hurt him.
“I’m just 16, sir,” he said. “My little brother’s dead in the car. He’s dead. He’s dead in there.”
4. What the use-of-force experts said
Use-of-force expert Philip Hayden, who testified for prosecutors, said “a reasonable officer would not have” fired at the car full of teens.
He agreed that Oliver responded appropriately until he fired the rifle. Hayden said Oliver had “plenty of time to see that Officer Gross was not in danger.”
The defense’s use-of-force expert, Harris County Sheriff’s Office Captain Jay Oliver Coons, said Oliver’s actions on the night of the shooting were reasonable.
5. What each side told jurors before deliberations
During closing arguments, prosecutor Michael Snipes said Oliver was “out of control” the night he killed Jordan.
“There’s just an out-of-control, trigger-happy, dangerous defendant who was looking for a reason to kill,” Snipes said.
He urged the jury to find Oliver guilty on the three charges — murder and two counts of aggravated assault.
Defense attorneys called Oliver a “protector” who was trying to keep his partner safe and told jurors to look “through the officer’s eyes” as they deliberate.
“It doesn’t matter that looking back in hindsight we’d all make a different decision,” defense attorney Bob Gill said.