On April 29, 2017, Jordan Edwards, a 15-year-old African-American boy, was murdered by police officer Roy Oliver in Balch Springs, Texas, within the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex.
[1][2][3][4] Edwards was shot in the back of the head while riding in the front passenger's seat of a vehicle driving away from officers that attempted to stop it.
Officer Roy Oliver fired three rifle rounds into a vehicle, striking Edwards in the head and killing him.
[9] Lee Merritt, a lawyer for Edwards's family, said Oliver shot through the front passenger side window.
[4] Police originally said an "unknown altercation [occurred] with a vehicle backing down the street towards the officers in an aggressive manner".
[1][2] After reviewing body-worn camera footage, Police Chief Jonathan Haber later admitted that the vehicle was not moving toward the officers, but rather away from them.
[5] Public and media reaction compared Edwards's death to the killings of other young black children by police officers.
[22] Shaun King published an article in the New York Daily News calling for the arrest of Oliver.
[19] In the 2020 short film Two Distant Strangers in which a Black American is repeatedly killed by a police officer whilst stuck in a time loop, a list of Black Americans killed during police interactions is included at the conclusion of the film.