Video shows police officer kneeling on Black man before fatally shooting him
A Black man face-down on the ground was fatally shot in the back of the head by a Michigan police officer, the violent climax of a traffic stop, foot chase and fight over a stun gun, according to videos of the 4 April incident released by police on Wednesday.
Patrick Lyoya, 26, a Congolese refugee, was killed on a residential street in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Video footage shows Lyoya running from the white officer who stopped him for driving with a license plate that didn’t belong to the vehicle. They struggled in front of several houses while Lyoya’s passenger got out and started filming. Shortly afterward, the officer shot Lyoya, who was face down on the ground, in the back of the head.
After protests in the city calling for justice, the police chief, Eric Winstrom, released four videos, including critical footage of the shooting recorded by the passenger in Lyoya’s car. “I view it as a tragedy,” said Winstrom, a former high-ranking Chicago police commander who became Grand Rapids police chief last month.
Grand Rapids is a small city of roughly 200,000 people, about 150 miles (240 km) north-west of Detroit.
The officer, a seven-year veteran, will not be identified publicly unless there are criminal charges, said Winstrom. He has been placed on paid leave with his police powers suspended, the chief said. Michigan state police are conducting a criminal investigation.
The civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump has been retained by the Lyoya family, and has pushed for the officer to be fired and charged. “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,” said Crump, who has represented numerous victims of police violence.
Protesters have been marching through the city calling for justice. At one rally, protester Nikita Miner told Michigan public radio: “We activists have been trying to tell you that G-R is no different from Ferguson, Minneapolis, Detroit or Chicago.”
She added: “Police have too much power, and it’s extrajudicial and it’s illegitimate.”
Lyoya came to the US fleeing violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2014. He has two young daughters and five siblings.
“He arrived in the United States as a refugee with his family fleeing violence. He had his whole life ahead of him,” said the governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer. .
The traffic stop was tense from the start. Video footage shows Lyoya getting out of the car before the officer approached and ordered him to get back in the vehicle. Lyoya did not get back in the car.
The officer asked him if he spoke English and demanded his driver’s license. Then Lyoya ran, and the officer started chasing him, , video shows. The white officer repeatedly ordered Lyoya to “let go” of his Taser, at one point demanding: “Drop the Taser!”
Chief Winstrom said the fight over the Taser lasted about 90 seconds. “From my view of the video, Taser was deployed twice. Taser did not make contact,” Winstrom told reporters. “And Mr Lyoya was shot in the head. However, that’s the only information that I have.”
“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 utilize that experience here.”
At a press briefing on Wednesday, CNN asked Winstrom what police officers are trained to do in these situations. “Typically the answer is that you’re trying to place him in custody ... You’re trying to secure that individual,” he replied.
“It should be noted that Patrick never used violence against this officer, even though the officer used violence against him in several instances for what was a misdemeanor traffic stop,” said Crump.
Video was collected from Lyoya’s passenger, the officer’s body-worn camera, the officer’s patrol car and
a doorbell camera. Chris Becker, the prosecutor who will decide whether any charges are warranted, objected to the release but said Winstrom could act on his own.
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.
It’s not clear when the autopsy and toxicology results will be released.
Mark Washington, the city manager, 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.
Winstrom last week said 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.
As in many US cities, Grand Rapids police have been criticized over the use of force, particularly against Black people, who make up 18% of the population.
In November 2021, the Michigan supreme court heard arguments in a lawsuit over the practice of photographing and fingerprinting people who were never charged with a crime. Grand Rapids said the policy changed in 2015.
A downtown street has been designated Breonna Taylor Way, named for the Black woman and Grand Rapids native who was killed by police in Louisville, Kentucky, during a botched drug raid in 2020.