Since April 12, 2022, BOSSIP has been following the case against former Grand Rapids police officer Christopher Schurr, who was charged with the second-degree murder of Patrick Lyoya. Schurr initiated a traffic stop because Lyoya’s car had a license plate that allegedly did not correspond to the vehicle. When Lyoya attempted to flee from Schurr, he was tackled and shot in the back of the head while lying face down on the ground. Lyoya never attacked Schurr nor was he armed, there was no justification for lethal force, however, Lyoya is dead all the same.
The release of the body camera footage from the killing only further incensed Lyoya’s family and the community at large because it is difficult to watch the video and see anything other than a murder. Schurr was fired from the police department and subsequently charged with second-degree murder.
It has been over three painful years since that day, and the Lyoya family has been patient in allowing the system to work in a case that should be fairly easy to adjudicate, However, this is Amerikkka.
According to the Detroit Free Press, the outcome of the criminal trial was not what the family or community wanted, as Judge Christina Mims declared a mistrial as the jury stood deadlocked after 20 hours of deliberation on whether or not to convict Schurr of Lyoya’s murder.
Within hours, the streets filled with angry citizens and activists leading marches and demonstrations demanding justice for the death of the Congolese refugee. The peaceful protesters also called out Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker by name and demanded that he seek a retrial.
“I’m not going to lie, I don’t have a lot of faith in the system,” said Aly Bates, one of the demonstration’s leaders. She later added, “we cannot allow the city to forget what happened.”
We can’t say that we have much faith in the system either after seeing years of police involved killings go unpunished, unaccounted for, and unresolved.
BOSSIP will continue to follow this case until Patrick Lyoya and his family are given the justice they so richly deserve.
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