Contrary to the original story put forward by Balch Springs police, the department’s chief says a cop fired into a car, killing black teenager Jordan Edwards, that was driving away from officers to flee a party that had been reported to authorities.
On Monday, Jonathan Haber, the police chief in Balch Spring, Texas, said he reviewed officer body-camera footage of the April 29 shooting and determined that the initial account of that night given by the department was incorrect.
The suburban Dallas department had said Sunday in a news release that the car, in which 15-year-old Edwards was the front-seat passenger, was “backing down the street towards the officers in an aggressive manner.”
The department offered a revised account on Monday, declaring that the car had backed “into the main roadway,” then “pulled forward as the officer continued to approach the vehicle giving verbal commands.”
The vehicle did not stop, driving away from the officer, prompting the cop to fire a rifle into the vehicle.
Edwards was shot in the head and died later at a local hospital.
Lee Merritt, the Edwards family’s attorney, has said that neither Edwards nor any of the other four teens in the car were drinking at the party, none of them were armed with a weapon and none of them were initially sought by police.
The officer, who has not been named, has been placed on administrative duty.
The Dallas County Sheriff’s Department and the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office are handing the investigation of the shooting.
“It did not meet our core values,” Chief Haber said of the shooting on Monday, according to the Dallas Morning News.
Haber added that he will not release footage of the shooting while the investigation is ongoing.
None of the other passengers in the car were injured, nor are they facing charges, according to Merritt.
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