Michigan police officer charged with murder in shooting death of Patrick Lyoya
A Michigan police officer who killed Patrick Lyoya, a Black man, with a shot to the again of his head has been charged with second-degree homicide.
Prosecutor Chris Becker introduced the cost on Thursday towards Grand Rapids Officer Christopher Schurr, weeks after Lyoya was killed following a chaotic visitors cease on April 4.
The 26-year-old Lyoya, a local of Congo, was on the bottom when he was killed. The capturing was recorded on video by a bystander.
“The dying was not justified or excused … by self defence,” Becker stated, referring to a component of second-degree homicide.
Schurr, who’s white, informed Lyoya that he stopped his automobile as a result of the licence plate did not match the automobile. Roughly a minute into the cease, Lyoya started to run after he was requested to supply a driver’s licence.
Schurr caught him shortly, and the 2 struggled throughout a entrance garden. The officer demanded that Lyoya “let go” of Schurr’s Taser earlier than he fired the deadly shot.
Grand Rapids police Chief Eric Winstrom launched video from 4 completely different sources on April 13. Legal professionals for Lyoya’s household have known as the dying an “execution.”
Grand Rapids, with a inhabitants about 200,000, is 260 kilometres west of Detroit.
Schurr has been a police officer since 2015. His personnel file exhibits no complaints of extreme drive however a lot reward for visitors stops and foot chases that led to arrests and the seizure of weapons and medicines.
The capturing changed into an instantaneous disaster for Winstrom, who was a commander in Chicago earlier than taking cost in Grand Rapids in early March.
At a neighborhood discussion board in April, the chief stated he needed to place extra emphasis on officers realizing methods to flip down the warmth throughout tense conditions.
“I assure that we are able to do extra,” he stated. “Truly, that is one of many issues I’ve already reached out to my colleagues to say, ‘Hey, I want some curriculum, as a result of we’re going to beef it up.'”
