Former Grand Rapids officer charged for murder of Patrick Lyoya set for appeal hearing
Lawyers for the former Grand Rapids police officer charged with murder in the fatal shooting of a Black motorist will be back in court Wednesday morning, as an appeals panel will hear a case deciding whether Christopher Schurr should stand trial.
Schurr was charged last year with second-degree murder in the April 2022 shooting of Patrick Lyoya, a Congolese refugee who was 26 at the time of his death. Footage released by police shows Schurr shooting Lyoya in the back of the head following a physical struggle that ensued after Lyoya attempted to flee a traffic stop in southeast Grand Rapids.
Schurr’s lawyers, led by attorney Matthew Borgula, have argued that Schurr was within his right to use lethal force after Lyoya attempted to flee the traffic stop and that Schurr was following his training as a police officer. Kent County Prosecutor Christopher Becker argued that it should be up to a west Michigan jury to decide whether Schurr used excessive force when fatally shooting Lyoya.
Judges in lower courts agreed with Becker that it should be up to a jury to decide whether the charge is valid. District Judge Nicholas Ayoub sent Schurr to trial following a three-day preliminary examination last October, and in February, Circuit Judge Christina Elmore denied a motion to throw out Ayoub’s order, saying the district court correctly bound Schurr over for trial.
Schurr’s attorneys then asked the Court of Appeals to weigh in on the matter. Judges Brock Swartzle, Colleen O’Brien and Kathleen Feeney will make up the panel overseeing the case Wednesday morning in Grand Rapids.
In a court brief submitted to the panel, Borgula argued that without a legislative statute defining when a police officer is authorized to use lethal force, the lower courts should have relied on previous common law rulings which justified use of lethal force to subdue a fleeing felon. Additionally, Borgula said the physical struggle that ensued as Schurr attempted to detain Lyoya played a factor in the shooting — Schurr had initially tried to fire a Taser stun gun at Lyoya, but missed twice. When the physical struggle began, Lyoya attempted to grab the stun gun.
“... Video makes clear that Lyoya and Schurr still believed it was capable of inflicting serious injury or death at that point, otherwise both would have abandoned the fight for it,” Borgula wrote. “Once Schurr lost control of the Taser, Lyoya instantaneously had what he and Schurr believed was the ability to inflict greater force or harm on Schurr than he had without the Taser.”
As Schurr fired at Lyoya, he yelled “let go of the Taser,” footage released by the Grand Rapids Police Department and in court shows.
Borgula also pointed to testimony from another officer, Capt. Chad McKersie, during the preliminary hearing. McKersie testified that Schurr properly followed his training through the entirety of the interaction with Lyoya.
In a responding brief, Becker and Kent County Chief Appellate Attorney Katherine Wendt again argued the justification for using deadly force is a question for a jury to decide, not the courts.
“To impose a bright-line rule for which a law enforcement officer can use deadly force would simply be unworkable,” prosecutors wrote. “To say that a police officer can always use deadly force in one situation or never in another fails to take into consideration the individual circumstances of each interaction.”
“... Contrary to Defendant’s argument, interpreting the second-degree murder statute in this way, as courts have done for decades, does not set the precedent that a criminal charge will be brought whenever a police officer uses force on duty.”
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Schurr was fired from his GRPD position last year, following being charged with second-degree murder. He was initially placed on paid administrative leave in the days following the shooting. His trial was originally slated to begin last March, and then pushed to an October start date before being adjourned while his appeal is pending.
Lyoya’s family has also filed a separate civil lawsuit against Schurr and the Grand Rapids Police Department in federal court, alleging civil rights violations and seeking $100 million in damages. A federal judge recently ruled that qualified immunity does not apply to Schurr at the early stage of litigation in that case.
The shooting galvanized members of the Grand Rapids community, as protests calling for police accountability were launched in the days and weeks after police released footage. Police in Grand Rapids have also retooled training standards and adopted policies emphasizing de-escalation tactics and stating the department’s “highest priority is the sanctity of human life.”
Contact Arpan Lobo: alobo@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @arpanlobo.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Former Grand Rapids officer charged in Lyoya shooting set for appeal
