Jordan Edwards was a bright kid. A happy kid. A model kid. He had the type of smile that could light up a room, those who knew him said. He had a loving family — among them his protective older brothers — supportive teammates, and he had a girlfriend. His most cherished dream was to be recruited by arguably one of the greatest football coaches of all time, Nick Saban.
Jordan Edwards was 15 years old, and he had only been to one party in his life. So he begged his father, Odell, to let him attend one on Saturday night, April 29. Odell agreed only because Jordan's brother, 17-year-old Kevon, and stepbrother, 16-year-old Vidal Allen, were going as well. Vidal drove, and he told Odell they'd leave at any sign of trouble.
That would be the second and last earthly party for the teenager. A 38-year-old white officer armed with an AR-15 semi-automatic machine gun would smash the teenager's dream, break his parents’ hearts, devastate his siblings and friends, and traumatize a community. On that fateful night, one brother would end up in hospital en route to the morgue and the other would spend the night in jail accused of being a party to his sibling’s death. Jordan Edwards died trying to protect his brother. His last words were, “Duck, get down!”
When called upon to give an account of exactly what happened on the night of the murder, the police department told the public that the teenagers ignored the verbal commands of the officers; that the boys got in their car and then tried to run over the cops leaving them with no option but to pump shots into the rapidly approaching vehicle. They were in fear for their lives.
Say it with me now: “Lies. All lies. Murderous lies.”
Pretty soon, Police Chief Jonathan Haber had to admit that he had “misspoken.”
After his original statement, however, Haber said he “misspoke.” He clarified that the car was in fact driving away from officers, not toward them. He added, “After reviewing video, I don’t believe that it [the shooting] met our core values.”
What the videos show was that only 54 seconds elapsed between the time Oliver grabbed his high-powered weapon out of his car and the time he started shooting at the defenseless boys. That, in fact, the car was moving away from the officers and not toward them as they had first reported. Indeed, forensics bore out that fact; young Jordan was shot in the back of the head as he sat in the front passenger seat.
Unlike all the other horrendous cases we know of, the murderer this time around was rebuked, fired, charged with murder, arrested and had his mug shot taken.
This Tuesday, 16 months after the killing of young Jordan, a jury took 12 hours to find Officer Roy Oliver guilty of murder and for that, we must thank his partner Officer Tyler Gross.
“For me, that was the crucial point,” Allen said. “You have an officer who was standing alone. He was not being covered by his fellow comrades. That’s what made this case unique.”
It could be credibly argued that it was the over-reaction of Officer Tyler Gross that precipitated this tragedy. He, it was, who first targeted the 2004 Impala carrying the boys and went as far as breaking one of the windows of the car as he yelled profanities at the boys. It may well have been his actions that triggered Oliver into going into Rambo mode.
Yes, we could argue that Gross bears some responsibility, but he never did discharge his weapon and it was his refusal to support Oliver’s self-serving revisionism that led to the murder charge. On the witness stand, Officer Gross did something that I don’t remember hearing of, at least not since Serpico; he refused to allow himself to be bullied into towing the blue line.
I’m not a body language expert, but to me he looked determined, a tiny bit nervous, and just a little pissed off. Roy Oliver still maintains that the only reason he fired was to save his partner and Gross isn’t having it.
From Officer Gross’s testimony:
Gross: I didn’t feel like the vehicle was trying to hit me.
Defense Attorney: Why did you retain an attorney in this case?
Gross: I felt like that… I felt that I needed representation because I was being pushed to testify one way.
Defense Attorney: What do you mean you “you were being pushed to testify one way”?
Gross: They had their opinion of what had happened that night and I didn’t feel like… I didn’t feel that I knew … like the counselor said, I don’t know what Officer Oliver saw that night and I can’t testify to what he saw or did, only to what I witnessed myself, so I just felt I was being pushed to testify to what Officer Oliver saw and did.
Gross (after prompting from Defense Attorney): I was in fear that the vehicle was close to me, I was not in fear that they were trying to run me over.
Prosecutor: Were you in such fear for your life at anytime that you felt the need to fire your weapon?
Gross: No.
Prosecutor: Did you fire your weapon?
Gross: No.
Police convictions are rare...very, very rare.
According to criminologist Philip Stinson, there are about 1,000 incidents per year where an on-duty police officer shoots and kills someone. // However, since 2005, only 33 police officers have been convicted over on-duty shootings where someone was killed, he told NBC. // Out of those cases, only six non-federal police officers were convicted of murder, and four of those convictions were overturned, AP news agency reports.
Accountability is all we’ve ever asked for
Well... we’ve asked for a little bit more than that. We first asked to be treated fairly. To be treated with respect and dignity, but recognizing that “wickedness dwells in the hearts of men,” when racists and sadists cannot control their worst impulses, the only deterrent I know of is for them to be held accountable for their actions. Jordan’s life and what he meant to his loved ones is worth a lot more than 15 years and $10,000.00. The prosecuting team argued for 60 years. Yes, I think Mr. Oliver needed much more than 15 years to repent of his sins, but my goodness, this is a whole lot longer than zero years. Maybe, just maybe, an officer will think twice, maybe thrice, before discharging his weapon after this conviction. Maybe, just maybe, he’ll exercise just a little bit more patience than he would before August 30, 2018, and we'd owe it all to the brave actions of Officer Tyler Gross… an imperfect man for sure, but an honorable man nonetheless.
This is indeed a giant step in the right direction.
The people who got it right this time
The system can work. If only people did the honorable thing, the decent thing, the right thing as they are charged and as they swear to do.
- Despite his initial misstep, Police Chief Jonathan Haber did the honorable thing after he took the time to review the body cams. He corrected his misstatements, he fired Oliver, and he said that the officer’s actions "did not meet our core values." Thank you, Sir.
- The prosecuting team argued their case with passion and conviction. Unlike those involved in Michael Brown’s case, there was no doubt for whom the prosecutors fought. (I do have some problems with them all but saying out loud that Jordan deserved to live because he was a perfect child. Imperfect black people should also be allowed to live.)
- The jurors listened to the evidence and they saw the dead youth as someone whose life mattered and so they did the right thing and convicted the murderer. I don’t understand how they found Oliver guilty of murder and not of aggravated assault but I’ll not look too closely at this gift horse.
- And Officer Tyler Gross. It could not have been easy for him and yet he did it. He bucked the system. He told the truth on that witness stand. He did the right thing. He did the decent thing. He did the honorable thing and because of him, Jordan Edwards parents cried tears of relief and gratitude. Thank you, Officer Gross. Thank you.
Rest in peace, Jordan.