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EX Police Officer Roy Oliver has been found guilty in the murder of Jordan Edwards. Edwards was fatally shot on April 29, 2017, when officers responded to a late-night house party in Balch Springs, a suburb southeast of Dallas.

Former Balch Springs police officer Roy Oliver was found guilty of murder on Tuesday for the fatal shooting of unarmed 15-year-old Jordan Edwards. Edwards was fatally shot on April 29, 2017, when officers responded to a late-night house party in Balch Springs, a suburb southeast of Dallas.

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Dallas County jury convicted Oliver of killing Edwards who was sitting in the front passenger seat as he and his friends started to drive away from a house party in a car in Balch Springs, TX according to ABC News.

The jury announced its verdict just before 3 PM CT after deliberating 13 hours over two days. the news outlet reported.

As Judge Brandon Birmingham read the verdict, Oliver showed no emotion. After the jury left the courtroom, relatives and friends of Edwards hugged and showed a great deal of relief. Edwards mother Charmaine Edwards broke out in tears. His father Odell Edwards, got up from his seat and hugged Assistant District Attorney Mike Snipes.

“I’m very, very happy,” Odell Edwards said. “It’s been a long time, a hard year” according to ABC News.

The jury found Oliver not guilty of aggravated assault for firing a rifle into the car of teenagers. During the trial, Oliver’s partner Tyler Gross testified that he ran toward the car Edwards was in and ordered the driver to stop.

Oliver testified he thought Gross was in danger of being run over and fired an AK-15 rifle five times at the car, hitting Jordan who was in the front passenger seat. He went on to say on the stand that before the shooting, he was inside the house and that he thought he heard gunfire erupt outside.

“I had to make a decision,” Oliver told jurors. “This car is about to hit my partner. I had no other option.”

Right after the shooting, Oliver told his superiors that the car was backing up toward Gross when he opened fire, but this was a lie. Body Camera and dash-cam footage showed the car was moving forward away from the officers when Oliver shot into the car.

The shooting of Edwards is just one of several deaths of Black people at the hands of the police, and one of the few officers who has actually been convicted.

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