Police in Grand Rapids, Michigan have released several videos showing a police officer’s interaction with Patrick Lyoya moments before the officer fatally shot him earlier this month.
This is everything we know about the killing of Lyoya.
On 13 April, the department released roughly 20 minutes of footage stitching together images from the officer’s police cruiser dashboard camera, the officer’s body-worn camera, surveillance camera footage from a nearby home, and cell phone video captured by a person riding in a car with Lyoya.
The footage
The phone video shows the officer – a seven-year veteran who has not been named – struggling to arrest Lyoya, a 26-year-old Black man, before holding him to the ground and fatally shooting him on 4 April.
Videos show the officer interacting with Lyoya after pulling him over during a traffic stop. Lyoya exits the car, the officer asks whether he speaks English, and the officer tells him the plates are not registered to the car as Lyoya asks what he did. The officer asks for his driver’s licence, and Lyoya turns to the door and asks the passenger something that is inaudible in the video. Lyoya briefly points inside the car, then closes the driver’s side door and begins to walk to the front of the car.
Body-camera footage shows the officer then saying “no, no, no, stop” and “put your hands behind your head” and grabbing Lyoya’s arms. Lyoya can then be seen pushing away and running to the sidewalk before he is tackled on a nearby lawn.
The two men struggle on the ground, and the officer tells him to “stop resisting”.
The officer also unholsters his Taser and fires towards Lyoya, who then appears to grab it from him.
Officer’s camera was ‘deactivated’
At that point, the officer’s camera was “deactivated”, according to law enforcement.
“The button was hit multiple times during the incident, however, it was only held down for long enough once during the altercation,” Grand Rapids Police Chief Eric Winstrom said during a briefing on 13 April.
The passenger’s phone video captures the officer pinning Lyoya to the lawn with his face to the ground while shouting “drop the Taser”.
With his firearm unholstered, he fires a shot into Lyoya. He tells the passenger filming the video to “get back”.
Officer fires single shot to head
The officer fired a single shot to Lyoya’s head while his face was toward the ground, according to Chief Winstrom.
The struggle lasted roughly 90 seconds and the officer fired the Taser twice, according to police. Both shots hit the ground and did not hit Lyoya.
Backup officers arrived three minutes later. Police did not recover a weapon from Lyoya.
Officer placed on administrative leave
The officer – who has been on the force since 2015 – was placed on administrative leave as Michigan State Police begin an investigation, according to law enforcement officials.
Kent County prosecutors initially requested that law enforcement not release any evidence until the conclusion of an investigation. An autopsy report from Kent County medical examiner’s office will not be released until the conclusion of the state police probe.
County Commissioner calls killing ‘execution’
Lyoya’s family and the ACLU of Michigan have urged the release of the footage of the shooting, which his family and Kent County Commissioner Robert Womack have described as an “execution”.
The family emigrated from the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2014. Patrick Lyoya lived in Grand Rapids while the rest of the family lives in Lansing.
Protesters demand accountability
Protests across Grand Rapids have demanded accountability in the wake of his death. Dozens of people rallied outside a city commission meeting on 12 April.
In anticipation of planned protests following the release of the video footage, Grand Rapids City Manager Mark Washington said the city does “not currently anticipate any threats to people or property in the downtown area”.
Civil rights attorney calls for officer’s prosecution
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who has travelled to Michigan for the case, said the video “clearly shows that this was an unnecessary, excessive and fatal use of force against an unarmed Black man who was confused by the encounter and terrified for his life”.
Speaking on behalf of Lyoya’s family, Mr Crump said he “never used violence against this officer” despite the officer’s use of deadly force, stemming from a traffic stop for a misdemeanour.
“We demand that the officer who killed Patrick not only be terminated ... but be arrested and prosecuted,” he said in a statement.
Mr Crump also represented the family of George Floyd, a Black man who was murdered by a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota on 25 May 2020, setting off nationwide racial justice protests.
Police chief says incident was ‘progression of sadness’
“I view it as a tragedy ... it was a progression of sadness for me,” Chief Winstrom said.
A former high-ranking Chicago police commander, he became Grand Rapids police chief in March. The city of about 200,000 people is about 150 miles (240 km) northwest of Detroit.
“Me being from Chicago for the last 20 years, I’ve handled many police shootings myself, so I do have a lot of experience in this,” the chief said. “I was hoping to never have to utilise that experience here.”
Kent County’s chief medical examiner, Dr Stephen Cohle, said he completed the autopsy but toxicology tests haven’t been finished.
Videos ‘are not all of the evidence,’ prosecutor says
Prosecutor Chris Becker said the public shouldn’t expect a quick decision.
“While the videos released today are an important piece of evidence, they are not all of the evidence,” he said.
City Manager Mark Washington warned that the videos would lead to “expressions of shock, of anger and of pain”. Some downtown businesses boarded up their storefronts, and concrete barricades surrounded police headquarters.
Lyoya had two young daughters and five siblings, Governer Gretchen Whitmer said after speaking to his family.
“He arrived in the United States as a refugee with his family fleeing violence. He had his whole life ahead of him,” Ms Whitmer, a Democrat, added.
Some businesses close early
More than 100 people marched to Grand Rapids City Hall before a City Commission meeting Tuesday night, chanting “Black lives matter” and “No justice, no peace”.
On Wednesday, several hundred protesters gathered outside the Grand Rapids Police Department following the release of the videos, with some cursing and shouting from behind barricades. The group demanded that officials make public the name of the officer in the shooting.
Some businesses cut their hours short Wednesday, closing early. Some boarded up windows. But the demonstration remained nonviolent with protesters demanding justice for Lyoya and other Black lives lost in shootings involving police.
Chief Winstrom said last week that he met Lyoya’s father, Peter Lyoya, and that they both cried.
“I get it as a father ... It’s just heart-wrenching,” the chief told WOOD-TV.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
