A passenger who was in the car with Jordan Edwards, a Dallas-area teenager who was allegedly killed by police, said he never heard an officer order them to stop as they drove away.
“We were just driving away …. and then everything started happening,” Maxwell Everett told CNN-affiliate KTVT on Monday.
He and his twin brother, Maximus, were in the car with Jordan, 15, and two of his brothers on April 29. Balch Springs Police said former officer Roy Oliver fired into the car, killing Jordan, 15, who was a front seat passenger.
The twins shared their ordeal Monday, saying no one in the group did anything wrong.
“We didn’t know what was going on until that happened,” Maxwell said.
“It was five innocent people and somebody ended up getting shot over nothing,” Maximus said.
Last week, the Balch Springs Police Department changed their story about the circumstances of the shooting, after body camera footage showed that the car was driving forward, away from the officers, not moving “aggressively” toward officers as police first claimed.
On May 2, Balch Springs Police Chief Jonathan Haber fired Oliver for “violating departmental policies.” Three days later, prosecutors charged Oliver with first-degree murder. He remains free on $300,000 bond.
Balch Springs officers, who had responded to a report of underage drinking on the night of the shooting, confronted a vehicle that continued to reverse despite being ordered not to, police said. The vehicle pulled forward as an officer approached, again giving commands, before driving away from the officers.
Oliver “discharged multiple rounds from his patrol rifle as the vehicle drove past him,” according to an arrest warrant by the Dallas County Sheriff’s Office.
On Friday, the Edwards family filed a lawsuit alleging that excessive force by an officer with a “violent” temper led to Jordan’s death. The department failed to train Oliver on the use of deadly force and techniques to control situations like the incident that resulted in Jordan’s death, the suit said.