Police Officer Fired and Charged With Murder After Killing Unarmed Teenager; All Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter Supporters Yet To Condemn His Actions
The police officer from a Dallas suburb who was fired shortly after he shot and killed a 15-year-old who was leaving a party could spend the rest of his life in prison. Roy Oliver, the former Balch Springs officer, was arrested on a murder charge on May 5, 2017. The 37-year-old former officer turned himself in and was quickly released after he posted bail on a $300,000 bond. Oliver killed Jordan Edwards when he fired a rifle into a car filled with teenagers who were leaving a party the previous Saturday night. A bullet struck Edwards, who was a passenger, in the head.
Although police first said Oliver fired the rifle because the car was backing up toward police officers, body-cam footage showed the car was actually driving away. Edwards’ family released a statement after the arrest warrant was issued, calling it “a bit of a reprieve in a time of intense mourning.”
The former police officer was arrested hours before Jordan’s funeral was scheduled to take place on May 6th. The family urged people not to protest at the funeral. “Though we understand what his life and death mean symbolically, we are not ready to make a martyr of our son,” the family said.
Jordan is the youngest of the 339 people who were shot and killed by police so far this year, according to the Washington Post.
The murder of Jordan Edwards was also recently accompanied by the acquittal of Betty Shelby, a former Tulsa, Oklahoma police officer who shot unarmed motorist and college student Terrence Crutcher to death on a highway after “fearing for her life,” claiming that Crutcher reached into his window for a weapon that never existed, even though other officers on the scene did not share the same sentiment.
Given the gravity of these situations, it’s interesting how the All Lives Matter and the Blue Lives Matter crowds haven’t spoken out against these atrocities and miscarriages of justice, yet still continue to try to silence those who do. Will they ever learn from the constant examples which are shown to us?
Only time will tell.