White cop faces life in prison after being found guilty of murdering unarmed black 15-year-old

Roy Oliver.
(Image credit: Rose Baca-Pool/Getty Images)

A Texas police officer has been found guilty in the murder of an unarmed black 15-year-old.

Roy Oliver, a white officer, killed Jordan Edwards in April 2017 while the teenager was leaving a house party in a car with four friends. Oliver shot into the moving vehicle and struck Edwards, later testifying that he thought his partner's life was at risk. But his partner disagreed, leading to Oliver's guilty conviction Tuesday, The Associated Press reports.

Oliver was sent to investigate an underage drinking report at the party Edwards attended last April. After a gunshot was apparently heard somewhere nearby, Edwards left the party with two of his brothers. In his testimony, Oliver said he shot because he thought the car's driver was trying to hit his partner Tyler Gross. But Gross testified that he never felt in danger or that he should fire, per CBS News. Investigators didn't find firearms in the car.

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Days after Edwards' death, Oliver was fired from his job, arrested, and then released on $300,000 bail. The case soon joined the national conversation surrounding police brutality against black suspects, particularly those who are unarmed or underage.

After two days of deliberation, jurors found Oliver guilty of Edwards' murder and not guilty on two counts of aggravated assault, per The Dallas Morning News. Oliver has yet to be sentenced but is facing life in prison on the conviction.

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Kathryn Krawczyk

Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.