Roy Oliver, fired Balch Springs police officer who is charged with the murder of 15-year-old Jordan Edwards, watches as lead prosecutor Michael Snipes questions Balch Springs police officer Tyler Gross during the first day of his trial at the Frank Crowley Courts Building in Dallas on Thursday, Aug. 16, 2018. (Rose Baca/The Dallas Morning News)
Roy Oliver, fired Balch Springs police officer who is charged with the murder of 15-year-old Jordan Edwards, watches as lead prosecutor Michael Snipes questions Balch Springs police officer Tyler Gross during the first day of his trial at the Frank Crowley Courts Building in Dallas on Thursday, Aug. 16, 2018. (Rose Baca/The Dallas Morning News) Credit: Dallas Morning News — Rose Baca

Dallas — A former Texas police officer who last year killed an unarmed black teenager — a passenger in a car leaving a house party — went on trial Thursday for murder.

The fatal shooting of 15-year-old Jordan Edwards by Roy Oliver, who is white, quickly became yet another flash point in the national debate over law enforcement and use of force. The high school freshman was one of the youngest people killed by police in 2017.

Despite defense attorneys’ last-minute attempt to halt the trial, the case began uneventfully in a Dallas County courtroom. The 38-year-old Oliver, a former patrol officer in the suburb of Balch Springs, claims he fired to protect his partner. Police initially said the car in which the teen, his stepbrother and three friends were riding reversed “aggressively” toward the officers but later acknowledged that body camera video showed the opposite.

In his opening statement, prosecutor Mike Snipes called Edwards “an innocent child doing nothing wrong that night.” His stepmother, the first witness, described him as her “TV buddy.” She added tearfully, “Nobody else would watch Lifetime with me.”

Oliver was fired three days after the youth’s death, with officials saying the six-year veteran had violated several department policies. His partner testified Thursday that he had not felt he was in danger.

While it is highly unusual for law enforcement officers to be indicted in shootings of civilians, much less to be convicted in such cases, Oliver is one of four former police officers indicted in Dallas County last year and the second to stand trial.

In January, former Farmers Branch officer Ken Johnson was found guilty of murder and aggravated assault and sentenced to 10 years in prison for shooting two 16-year-olds, one of whom was killed. Johnson was off-duty and in regular clothes when he caught the teens breaking into his personal vehicle in 2016. The pair drove away with him in pursuit. After a short chase, Johnson rammed the other vehicle, got out of his SUV and fired 16 times.

And in September, former Mesquite police officer Derick Wiley is scheduled to go on trial in connection with a shooting last fall that injured a man trying to unlock his own truck. Wiley had been responding to a report of a possible car burglary.