Grand Rapids Police Officer Christopher Schurr Charged Over Shooting Death of Patrick Lyoya
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Grand Rapids police officer Christopher Schurr has been charged with one count of second-degree murder following his shooting of an unarmed Black man.
“Based on everything [the detective] has provided to me I’ve made the decision to charge Christopher Schurr with one count of second-degree murder,” announced Kent County Prosecutor Christopher Becker.
“Second-degree murder is a felony offense is punishable by up to life in prison with the possibility of parole.”
The announcement by the Kent County Prosecutor’s office on Thursday came after nationwide outrage when the release of witness and body-camera footage showed Schurr, who is white, shoot Lyoya in the back of the head following a traffic stop.
In early April, Lyoya and another man were pulled over by Schurr for allegedly having a license plate that did not match the car Lyoya was driving—a possible sign of car theft.
Lyoya left the vehicle and asked why he was being stopped before starting to slowly walk away from the encounter.
When Schurr tried to grab Lyoya from behind, Lyoya escaped the officer’s grip and began to jog towards a nearby lawn. Schurr attempted to use his taser and missed.
Patrick Lyoya blocks a taser weapon held by a Grand Rapids Police officer during a traffic stop, shortly before he was shot dead.
Schurr managed to tackle Lyoya and hold him face down on the ground, sitting on top of him.
Then, he yelled for Lyoya to let go of his taser before reaching for his gun and firing at the back of his head, killing him.
The position of the taser is not clear in those final moments.
“We are encouraged by attorney Christopher Becker’s decision to charge Christopher Schurr for the brutal killing of Patrick Lyoya, which we all witnessed when the video footage was released to the public,” said the family’s lawyer, prominent civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump in an emailed statement.
Crump called the decision a “crucial step in the right direction” towards justice.
“Officer Schurr must be held accountable for his decision to pursue an unarmed Patrick, ultimately shooting him in the back of the head and killing him– for nothing more than a traffic stop,” he said.
Following the April shooting, tensions were high in Grand Rapids, where the Black community makes up only 18 percent of the population in a majority white city with a long history of police misconduct.
A Grand Rapids Police officer grasps the shirt of Patrick Lyoya during a traffic stop, shortly before Lyoya was shot dead in April.
Later that month, Crump and the Lyoya family released the findings of an independent autopsy report which they said showed the gun had been pressed to the back of Lyoya’s head when he was shot.
At the time, Crump questioned whether the stop may have been racial profiling—wondering how Schurr knew Lyoya’s registration was bad if he initially drove past in the opposite direction.
Dorcas Lyoya (C), the mother of Patrick Lyoya, is comforted as she grieves the loss of her son while he is laid to rest at Resurrection Cemetery on April 22.
Following Thursday’s announcement in Grand Rapids, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel commended Becker and Grand Rapids prosecutors for their review of the case.
“We must now respect the judicial process and allow the facts of the case to be presented in court,” Nessel said the statement, released immediately after the announcement.
Before he was killed by Schurr, Lyoya was a 26-year-old refugee, the son of Dorcas and Peter Lyoya—who had brought their family to Grand Rapids as refugees from violence in their home country of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Schurr has turned himself in to Michigan State Police and will be arraigned on Friday, said Becker.
Michigan State Police spokesperson Lt. Michelle Robinson declined to comment on the decision by county prosecutors.
“It would be inappropriate to offer an opinion on the Prosecutor’s decision,” wrote Robinson. “Our role was that of investigating the facts.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to the police union for comment.
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