Grand Rapids Police Officer Accused Of Killing Patrick Lyoya Will Face Murder Trial
A judge has ruled that the officer accused of killing 26-year-old Patrick Lyoya during a traffic stop will stand trial for murder.
According to MLive.com, after two days of testimony presented during a preliminary examination hearing last week, District Judge Nicholas Ayoub ruled there was enough evidence for Officer Christopher Schurr’s case to move to trial. Ayoub’s opinion, which he read from the bench, stated in part: “Factual questions remain as to whether defendant reasonably believed that his life was in imminent danger (or that he was in imminent danger of suffering great bodily harm) and that deadly force was reasonably necessary. These are questions of fact that the jury must decide based on the totality of the circumstances as presented by the evidence at trial.”
Schurr, who is white, pulled over Lyoya, 26, on April 4 for having a license plate that didn’t match the car he was driving. Lyoya, who was unarmed, stepped out of the vehicle and asked Schurr, 31, why he was stopped. “The plate doesn’t belong on this car,” the officer replied. What happened next was captured in videos from a passenger in Lyoya’s car, home-surveillance system, as well as Schurr’s dashboard and body-worn cameras.
Lyoya fled on foot and Schurr ran after him. The officer pulled out his Taser and fired at him twice without success. Schurr caught up to Lyoya and sat on Lyoya’s back. During the struggle, Schurr shot him in the back of the head.
According to CNN, Lyoya had three outstanding warrants at the time of the traffic stop, and an autopsy found that his blood-alcohol level was three times above the legal limit to drive.
Before immigrating to the United States in 2014, Lyoya lived with his family in a refugee camp in Malawi after escaping a violent conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
