Training officers may bring hope of change

On April 29, 2017, Jordan Edwards, a 15-year old from a small town in Dallas, was shot and killed by a police officer while leaving a party. And on August 28, 2018 that police officer, Roy Oliver, was charged with the murder of the teen, Jordan.

Jordan and a group of his friends were at a party and were informed that the police were on their way, after the police, received a call regarding under-age drinking. Once the group of teenagers heard this, they left the party.

When the police arrived at the house they said that they allegedly heard gunshots nearby, and so they went to see where the alleged shots came from.

Before approaching the general area, police officer, Oliver grabbed his patrol rifle. Oliver says there was a Chevrolet Impala continuing to reverse toward him: disregarding his orders to stop. While later in the investigation body camera footage clearly showed that the car was moving forwards not backwards: not in any way harmful to the officer.

The officer approached the stopped vehicle, weapon in hand, and punched the window of the car as it drove away. As the group of scared teenagers drove away the police officer fired at the vehicle many times: one bullet striking and killing Edwards.

Here in Harford County there have been many accounts of Police officers shutting down parties involving under-age drinking, or even drug use. But these accounts have not ended in fatal shootings. This proves that officers can go about these situations in a less detrimental way. The question is how. How can all officers treat these situations in a safer way?

Maybe the answer is to train officers to be more equipped when entering delicate situations like this one. Because, yes, this was a complicated situation, but it would be a sad day in society to say that the shooting and killing of Jordan was justified.

And many might say that the teenagers should have stopped, or that they should have been more respectful. But when the group stopped for the officer he came to the window armed and ready to attack them. Most teenagers are terrified, if pulled over, when a flashlight is in their face. Can you imagine these, probable new drivers, when an officer held a rifle near their face? Any teenager’s first instinct would be to get out of the situation. And once the group did that the police officer could not think of any better way to deploy the situation other than to shoot at the moving vehicle.

Some might even say that the teenagers were probably acting violent towards the officer, but a report on CNN confirms that in a lawsuit Jordan’s father stated that the group of boys held no threat to the officer whatsoever: proving that these young boys were simply scared.

This is not to say that all police officers are “brutal” or “violent,” but situations like this one happen all the time, and if something in the police department does not change then the real fear is that the events happening will not change either.