RantCrush Top 5: July 19, 2017

The white Texas cop who fatally shot a black 15-year-old boy in a car in April has been indicted on murder charges. Roy Oliver, 37, also faces four counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon by a public servant, since there were four other people in the car. Officers were responding to a call about underage kids drinking at a house party and claimed they heard gunfire. They said that the car that Jordan Edwards was riding in reversed “aggressively” toward the officers while they stood on the street. Oliver opened fire with a rifle and shot Edwards in the head while his two brothers and two friends were in the car.

Jordan Edwards, 15, was in a car leaving a party in April when a cop, now charged w/murder, shot him in the head. He was a HS freshman in TX pic.twitter.com/A1FPF5gvix

— Stephanie Wash (@WashNews) July 17, 2017

But body camera footage later showed that the car was driving forward and away from the officers. Also, Edwards’ 16-year-old brother was handcuffed and held in jail overnight for seemingly no reason. The Dallas County Sheriff’s Department said the footage showed that Oliver “intended to cause serious bodily injury and commit an act clearly dangerous to human life that caused the death of an individual.”

Emma Von Zeipel

Emma Von Zeipel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. She is originally from one of the islands of Stockholm, Sweden. After working for Democratic Voice of Burma in Thailand, she ended up in New York City. She has a BA in journalism from Stockholm University and is passionate about human rights, good books, horses, and European chocolate. Contact Emma at EVonZeipel@LawStreetMedia.com.