The family of Jordan Edwards, a black 15-year-old shot and killed by a white suburban Dallas police officer, has sued the officer and his department, claiming it didn’t provide enough training on deadly force.
Jordan Edwards’ funeral was Saturday, one week after he was shot dead in a vehicle leaving a house party in Balch Springs, Texas. According to the Edwards family’s lawyers, Balch Springs Officer Roy Oliver fired his rifle at the vehicle as it was driving away, piercing a passenger-side window and striking Edwards.
The lawsuit, which was filed Friday, was against Oliver and the Balch Springs Police Department.
According to the Associated Press, the lawsuit accuses the department of inadequately training Oliver and also ignoring warning signs that he was prone to erratic behavior. It said that police should have known that Oliver had “exhibited a pattern of escalating encounters with the public,” including a recently revealed complaint filed by prosecutors about Oliver’s aggressive behavior.
“There was no reason that any person in America — not just a black person — should ever have to bury their 15-year-old child who was doing everything right in life,” Jasmine Crockett, one of the family’s attorneys, said Sunday, according to the AP.
The complaint indicated that prosecutors had a difficult time getting Oliver to attend a trial, adding that he was angry that he had to be there. Oliver also used obscene language, causing an assistant district attorney to send a female intern out of the room, and cursed during his testimony, according to the complaint.
