Former Texas police officer Roy Oliver on Tuesday was convicted in a Dallas courtroom of murder in the shooting death of an unarmed black teen.
The Associated Press reported that Oliver, who is white, was found guilty of fatally shooting 15-year-old Jordan Edwards as he left a house party in April 2017.
Oliver, who killed Edwards after firing into a car full of black teenagers, had already been fired from his post at the Balch Springs Police Department days after the shooting.
{mosads}The former officer testified last Thursday that he started shooting after seeing the car, in which Edwards was sitting in the passenger seat, move toward his partner.
Oliver said at his murder trial that he had no choice but to use deadly force, as he feared for his partner’s life at the time.
However, Oliver’s partner, Tyler Gross, previously testified that he didn’t feel the need to shoot and he hadn’t feared for his life.
A witness who attended the house party, Jeremy Seaton, also testified that the teens in the car didn’t appear to be attempting to hit Gross, according to NBC News.
“We were just kids leaving a party,” Maximus Everette, 15, who was sitting in the back seat of the car, said in a television interview last year.
“We shouldn’t have to fear the police when our parents teach us to respect them,” Everette told a local station. “So I don’t see why they would fear just kids leaving a party.”
Oliver, who was hired by the police department in 2011, was suspended for another incident and was subsequently required to take anger management classes after he failed to contain his temper in a courtroom, according to NBC News.
He was reportedly upset that he was required to attend court, according to documents obtained by the outlet.