Michigan police release video of police shooting Patrick Lyoya

The Grand Rapids Police Department in Michigan released several videos on Wednesday of police shooting and killing a Black man during a traffic stop this month.

The videos, ranging from body-worn cameras, in-car cameras, cell phones and home surveillance systems, show the final moments of Patrick Lyoya’s life.

Lyoya, 26 years old, was killed on the morning of April 4.

Taken together, the videos – played during a press conference on Wednesday – show moments before Lyoya’s death, his initial interaction with the officer who pulled him over, the discharge fatal gun and moments after his body seemed to go limp on the front lawn of a house.

Dashcam video from the officer’s car shows Lyoya pulling into a residential area on a rainy morning and the officer stopping behind him. Both Lyoya and the officer, who has not been identified, got out of their car.

The police officer can be heard telling Lyoya to get back in the car and ask for a driver’s license.

Lyoya, who remained outside the car, repeatedly asked the staff what he had done wrong and demanded that a passenger in the car get his license back.

The officer, according to body camera video, said Lyoya was stopped because “the license plate does not belong to this vehicle.”

In the seconds that followed, Lyoya appeared to walk away and the officer appeared to attempt to restrain him and handcuff him. Lyoya then ran away and the officer chased after him, eventually pinning him to the ground.

The two strugglers and the officer can be heard saying “stop” and “stop resisting” several times.

The officer, who appeared to have unwrapped his Taser, also shouted at least five times for Lyoya to either “let go of the Taser” or “drop the Taser,” according to cell phone video obtained by passengers in Lyoya’s car, who only can rotate. out of four videos to capture the footage clearly.

That video shows the officer pinning Lyoya to the ground again, knee on his back, grabbing a gun and shooting Lyoya in the back of the head while he is face down.

The city’s police chief, Eric Winstrom, said the videos and audio had not been edited, except for transactions and blurred to ensure privacy. The face of passenger Lyoya, who took the video with a mobile phone, is blurred. That person has not been made public.

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing Lyoya’s family, said in a statement following the release of the video that it “clearly shows that this was an unnecessary, excessive use of force. and fatal to an unarmed Black man who is bewildered by encounter and appalled for his life.”

Crump said: “It should be noted that Patrick never used violence against this officer, although the officer did use violence on him on a number of occasions because of minor parking errors.

Winstrom said the investigation is being handled by the Michigan State Police, which will turn over its findings to the Kent County prosecutor, who will ultimately decide if the officer faces charges. criminal or not, Winstrom said.

District Attorney Chris Becker has asked the department not to release video of the shooting until the state police investigation is complete, to “maintain the integrity of this investigation.”

Becker did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment on the video’s release.

Winstrom said the officer who shot Lyoya was on paid leave and has been stripped of his police status pending an investigation.

The white officer has been with the department since 2015. His name has not been released.

Crump has called for the arrest and prosecution of the police officer for “violently killing Patrick Lyoya”.

Derrick Johnson, president of the NAACP, also called to hold the officer “responsible.”

“An unregistered license plate would not be a death sentence,” Johnson said.

Several members of Lyoya’s family and their language interpreters who watched video of the encounter before Wednesday’s release said he was killed “execution-style.”

“I saw that tape. I couldn’t sleep,” Israel Siku, the interpreter for the Lyoya family, said Sunday at a community forum at the Renaissance Church of God in Christ in Grand Rapids. The family’s native language is Swahili.

Lyoya immigrated to the United States with her family in 2014 from the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo.

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer said Wednesday that she has spoken to the family.

“The governor and I spoke with Patrick’s family and our hearts go out to them and the Grand Rapids community, who are facing unimaginable pain and loss,” Whitmer said. . “Patrick is 26 years old. He came to the United States as a refugee with his family to escape violence. He has his whole life ahead of him.”

Whitmer also said Lyoya’s father had asked her to convey “his hope that any demonstrations in his son’s honor remain peaceful.”

“We must come together and build a future where Black Michigandas are provided with equal rights, dignity, and safety in our community.”

Barriers and fences were erected around the main police station building as well as in several other areas prior to the video’s release.

Mark Washington, the city’s manager, said the steps were “precautionary measures.”

“This not only ensures the safety of the facility, but also ensures that we can provide an ongoing public safety service to the entire community,” Washington said in a statement. “I understand that these precautions can be alarming for some, I can assure you we have no current indication of an imminent threat.”

Demands for the videos to be released prompted protests and protests across Grand Rapids, including one during a city committee meeting Tuesday night.

For hours, a long line of community members in a packed City Hall room expressed their anger and frustration over the city’s top brass.

Some have called for a police crackdown and asked city leaders to resign, including Mayor Rosalynn Bliss and Washington, the city’s manager.

Others said they’ve been warning the city for years to downsize what they call “severe policy” and recall previous violent interactions between police and members of the Caucasian community. Black of the city.

Last year, Grand Rapids police officers stopped and arrested a Black man they mistook for someone else. The city’s Internal Affairs Unit ultimately concluded that two officers were justified when initiating a traffic stop, and three other officers were justified in using force during arrest, including assaults. knee, as recently reported. MLive / The Grand Rapids Press passed a Freedom of Information Act request.

In 2017, several officers stopped five unarmed black men and teenagers with guns and forced them to back up to the police with their hands behind their heads. They were searched, handcuffed and taken to the back of police cruisers before being released. They’re not the teen police you’re looking for, according to MLive.

EDIT (April 13, 2022, 6:45 ET): An earlier version of this article misrepresented this quote: “It should be noted that Patrick never used violence against this officer even though the officer used violence against him in one instance. number of cases for the crime of stopping.” It was from Benjamin Crump, the family attorney for Patrick Lyoya, not from Governor Gretchen Whitmer.

at Blogtuan.info – Source: nbcnews.com – Read the original article here