Car wasn’t threat to police, teens who saw officer kill Jordan Edwards testify
When Eric Knight watched a news conference conducted by the Balch Springs police chief the day after an officer shot and killed an unarmed 15-year-old boy, Knight decided he needed to come forward.
“(Chief Jonathan Haber) made a statement that a car was accelerating backward, trying to hit a police officer,” Knight said. “At that moment I knew that was wrong.”
Knight testified on Friday in Dallas County District Court about what he saw on April 29, 2017. Ex-police Officer Roy Oliver is on trial for murder after he shot into a car full of teenagers that night. Jordan Edwards, 15, was shot in the head and died.
The events leading up to the shooting included a party at a residence on Baron Drive, which attracted 150 to 300 teenagers and led to a call to police. Across the street, members of the Bank Bros gang parked in front of a nursing home and fought. One of them fired 12 rounds into the air, witnesses said.
Not knowing who was shooting or from where, Oliver and his partner, Officer Tyler Gross, who had been called to break up the party, ran outside to find the source.
They both came across a 2004 Impala driven by Vidal Allen, 18, Edwards’ stepbrother. Four other boys were in the car.
Allen testified on Thursday that he tried to back out of the street to leave the party. But Oliver fired into the car five times; he said it was because the car was about to run over Gross.
Gross testified against Oliver on Thursday, saying he never felt in fear for his life. Oliver’s defense attorney argued that Oliver’s point of view could’ve made it look like the car was going toward Gross.
Knight, 19, and his friend Jeremy Seaton, 18, watched the entire episode unfold from the parking lot of the nursing home.
After the cops came
Knight and Seaton had been hanging out toward the back of the house party when they saw that police had arrived. Like some other party-goers, they ran out the backdoor, jumped a few fences and headed toward Seaton’s truck.
He was parked at the Balch Springs Nursing Home — just at the end of Baron Drive and across from Shepherd Lane.
When they got to the truck, Knight told his friend not to drive away. They didn’t want to draw attention to themselves, and didn’t want the police to think they were doing anything wrong.
But then a sport utility vehicle pulled up and parked near them.
“People started piling out of the SUV … and then they started pulling out guns and waving them around,” Seaton said.
The people weren’t at the party and Seaton recognized one of the men, whose street name is Tupac, he said.
“That’s when they shot,” Seaton said. “I saw the person known as Tupac shoot into the air.”
He fired off 12 rounds, alerting Oliver and Gross, who were inside the house at the time. The officers ran outside. The Impala where Edwards sat was situated between the officers and the nursing home.
The driver, Allen, was trying to back out and leave the area.
Within a few seconds, Oliver said he thought the driver was trying to run over Gross. He fired five gunshots into the car.
Asked by Prosecutor Michael Snipes if they thought the driver was trying to run over the police officers, both Knight and Seaton said no.
“By the time the shots were fired by (Oliver), the car was parallel with Shepherd and facing down Shepherd toward the south,” Seaton said. “The car was never facing an officer at the time.”
Both teenagers said they didn’t see any reason for Oliver to shoot into the car.
After seeing Haber at the news conference, Knight told his mom what happened. Then he contacted Seaton and they both went to the Dallas County Sheriff’s Office to give their statements, which conflicted with what Oliver said happened.
This story was originally published August 17, 2018 at 2:52 PM with the headline "Car wasn’t threat to police, teens who saw officer kill Jordan Edwards testify."