Updated at 5:30 p.m. with additional testimony.
Several teenagers who saw a police officer shoot into a car full of high schoolers last year testified Friday that there was no justification for the shooting.
Former Balch Springs officer Roy Oliver, whose murder trial began this week, has said that he fired on the car because he believed the driver was trying to hit his partner.
Oliver, 38, lost his job with the Balch Springs Police Department days after the April 29, 2017, shooting that killed 15-year-old Jordan Edwards.
On the night the teen died, Oliver and Officer Tyler Gross had responded to a 911 complaint about a house party the teens were attending.
They chatted with kids at the party and even cracked jokes — but the police response switched gears when gunshots rang out nearby.
Jordan and four other teenagers were in a Chevrolet Impala driving away from the party when Gross ran out of the house and tried to stop the car.
Oliver, armed with his patrol rifle, ran up to the car seconds later and fired into the tinted windows, striking Jordan in the back of the head and killing him instantly.
Two teenagers were across the street from the shooting and testified Friday that the car was not driving toward either officer.
"It was definitely scary. It was a scary moment for me," testified Eric Knight, who witnessed the shooting of Jordan and the gunfire that caused the officers to run outside.
The initial shots were later determined to have been fired outside a nursing home nearby — a shooting that was not connected to anyone at the party.
Knight and his friend, Jeremy Seaton, had both attended the house party but left as soon as they saw police lights. They went to Seaton's truck, which was parked at the nursing home, about a block away.
Knight urged his friend to wait a moment before driving away, fearing that it would make them look guilty to police. He said that was a decision that may have saved his life.
"I feel like it could've easily been me or Jeremy that night," he said.
While the teens were in the parking lot, they saw an SUV pull into the nursing home parking lot. People piled out of the car, and at least one person fired a gun into the air.
Knight and Seaton hid in the truck and watched as the SUV drove off.
Less than a minute later, they watched as Gross ran up to a car reversing away from its parking spot. They heard the officer yell for the car to stop and then a second, bald-headed officer run up and fire into the car.
"Did you see a reason for the bald-headed officer to be shooting at the car?" prosecutor Michael Snipes asked Seaton.
"No," Seaton replied. "The car was never facing an officer at the time."
Knight and Seaton called investigators after they saw a news report in which Balch Springs Police Chief Jonathan Haber said the car had aggressively reversed toward the officers.
The teenagers said that didn't happen. Knight said he saw the car try to veer around the first officer.
Other teenagers who were on the street at the time of the shooting said they didn't see any reason for Oliver to shoot.
Maxwell Everette, 17, and his twin brother, Maximus Everette, were in the car with Jordan.
Maximus was sitting directly behind Jordan. He remembered seeing a police officer moments before the shots were fired.
"I seen someone aiming a gun and getting ready to shoot a gun, and I ducked," he said.
Then he heard a "loud popping noise" and "looked up and it was like real smoky in the car."
His brother, Maxwell, didn't see anything before the shooting but remembers the moments after. He glanced up and figured his friend had spilled his drink because his shirt had turned blood red.
They all could see, however, that something was wrong.
"We knew that Jordan needed help," Maxwell said Friday.
The teenagers pulled over down the road, and the driver and Maxwell called their parents.
That's when Maxwell looked at Jordan.
The teen thought his friend's shirt was red from his drink.
"Once I see that, like..." Maxwell said before he stopped talking, looked down and sniffed.
Testimony will resume in the trial Monday morning.
