Fired Texas cop testifies he had no choice but to shoot car

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Ryan Tarinelli, Associated Press
Updated 5:04 pm CDT, Thursday, August 23, 2018





Photo: Associated Press

IMAGE 2 OF 34
This family photo Jordan Edwards, left, with his father, Odell Edwards. Balch Springs police officer Roy Oliver was fired three days after the teen's death. (Courtesy of Lee Merritt/Edwards family via AP)


DALLAS (AP) — A former suburban Dallas police officer testified Thursday at his murder trial that he felt he had no choice but to use deadly force the night he opened fire on a carload of black teenagers leaving a house party, which resulted in the death of a 15-year-old boy.

Roy Oliver, who is white, was fired from the Balch Springs Police Department after the shooting in April 2017. He told jurors that he decided to fire on the car when he saw it moving toward his partner, Officer Tyler Gross. The gunfire killed high school freshman Jordan Edwards, who was in the front passenger seat.

Oliver said he thought Gross was in danger, but Gross previously testified that he didn't fear for his life and never felt the need to shoot. A prosecutor earlier called Oliver "trigger happy."

Oliver was among two officers who responded to the house party in Balch Springs. He testified that while he was in the house, he heard gunshots outside, leading him to believe there was an active shooter. It was later determined that the shots were fired near a nursing home in the area.

Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/texas/article/Ex-officer-takes-stand-in-defense-at-murder-trial-13177662.php#photo-12839727

[marble falls]

1. I think its even money he'll walk. We need to change the laws for accused cops that gets them off ..

even if fired by insisting they were in fear of their lives.

[ROB-ROX]

2. ILLEGAL AND UNLAWFUL USE OF A WEAPON IN PUBLIC IS WRONG

This cop is like many cops who should never be issued a weapon. Their FEAR is so high in public that these murders are discovered after they kill. Each murder should be given the maximum sentence which will cause other cop killers to either QUIT (before they kill) or go on trial for murder. I think the same should happen to murders who "stand their ground." Murdering unarmed people is plain CRAZY and should be STOPPED.

[oasis]

3. 'Trigger happy" maybe. Bloodthirsty for sure. nt

[Captain Stern]

4. There's a lot of messed up stuff here.

The accused murderer claims he had 'no choice' when he shot at the car.......yet his fellow officer, that he was supposedly protecting, chose not to shoot at the car. His fellow officer didn't say that he was out of bullets, or lost his gun...he just didn't shoot at the car. Seems to me there actually was a choice.

On a side note, I don't think that trained law enforcement agents should be held to the same standards of conduct that I am. I think they should be held to higher standards than I am.

If I carried a gun, and shot someone that I was arguing with, just because they reached into their pocket, and I thought they had a gun (and it turned out they didn't) and I got scared....I'd be going to prison. There might be a debate about how many years I should be in prison, but I'd be in prison, nevertheless.

But it seems to me that in a lot of cases where law enforcement guys/gals shoot an unarmed person, they (the people that have had tons of training) get a pass because they were scared, whereas myself (a guy with ZERO training) would go straight to jail.

That's just fucked up.