WASHINGTON: A Texas police officer who fired into a carful of teens, killing a 15-year-old African American, was charged on Friday with murder, authorities said.
The Dallas County Sheriff's office issued an arrest warrant for Roy Oliver of the Balch Springs Police Department in suburban Dallas over the shooting of Jordan Edwards late April 29.
Oliver, 37, who is white, also has been fired from his job and remains at large, local media reported.
Oliver was one of two police officers who responded to a report of underaged drinking the night the shooting took place, The Dallas Morning News reported.
Jordan and four others got into their car to leave the area after gunfire was heard at the time.
Oliver fired a rifle into the car, hitting the teen in the head.
Evidence suggested the police officer "intended to cause serious bodily injury and commit an act clearly dangerous to human life that caused the death," The Dallas County Sheriff's Office said in a statement announcing the warrant.
Police originally said Oliver acted because the car was backing up aggressively toward him, the paper reported, but the department changed its account after viewing body-cam footage, saying the car was driving away when Edwards was shot.
The shooting is the latest prominent killing of an African-American by a white police officer in a string of similar cases that have fuelled outrage across the United States and given rise to the Black Lives Matter movement.