Michigan Court declines to hear appeal of ex-officer charged in Patrick Lyoya killing
The Michigan Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal Monday from a former police officer who is charged with killing a 26-year-old Black man during a traffic stop.
Christopher Schurr was fired from the Grand Rapids Police Department shortly after the Kent County Prosecutor's Office charged him with second-degree murder in connection to the 2022 fatal shooting of Patrick Lyoya, a Congolese refugee. Schurr is currently awaiting trial.
"We hope to move forward as quickly as possible to have a final resolution for Patrick’s family who has been patiently waiting for years for this to occur," said Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker.
Schurr's attorneys have argued that he should not have to stand trial because he was acting within his rights as a law enforcement officer. Last January, a Court of Appeals panel ruled 2-1 that the lower court was correct in binding Schurr over for trial.
In a one-page order, the Michigan Supreme Court declined to hear Schurr's appeal. Justices David Viviano and Brian Zahra dissented and were in favor of remanding the case back to the Michigan Court of Appeals for reconsideration.
Schurr's lead defense attorney, Matthew Borgula, did not immediately return a request for comment.
What happened to Patrick Lyoya?
On April 4, 2022, Schurr pulled over Lyoya in a Grand Rapids neighborhood. Footage released by police shows the officer telling Lyoya he stopped his car because the license plate didn't match the vehicle.
Lyoya exits the car and appears confused, prompting Schurr to tell him to get back in and provide his driver’s license. Moments later, Lyoya begins walking away from the car and Schurr attempts to grab him while saying "Stop." Lyoya runs away, resulting in a chase through the front yards of nearby homes.
The two struggle as Schurr says "Stop," and he eventually tackles Lyoya. As Lyoya is face down on the ground, Schurr shoots him in the back of the head.
During the encounter, Schurr attempts to deploy his stun gun on Lyoya but appears to miss, and Lyoya tries to grab the stun gun. Just before the officer fires his gun, he yells: “Let go of the Taser!”
A passenger in the car who recorded the interaction on his phone tells the officer, "Stop, he good, you can talk to him."
Ex-officer charged with second-degree murder
In June 2022, Schurr was charged with second-degree murder by the Kent County Prosecutor's Office and was bound over for trial after a preliminary examination later that year. He appealed the decision to send him to trial but was unsuccessful both at the circuit court level and the Michigan Court of Appeals.
Schurr’s attorneys have argued that he was acting within his right as a police officer to use lethal force. Prosecutors say it should be up to a jury to decide whether the use of lethal force was justified.
Lyoya's death sparked protests in Michigan and led to increased calls for police accountability. After the shooting, the Grand Rapids Police Department implemented new policies including de-escalation training and created a policy dedicated to the “sanctity of life.”
Grand Rapids is home to about 200,000 people, about 18% of whom are Black, according to census data.
Police have killed 1,101 people so far in 2024
Monday's court order comes as the United States nears the end of what could be a record year for killings by law enforcement. The Mapping Police Violence project has been tracking officer killings since 2013, and the death toll reached a record high last year at 1,248 fatalities. So far this year, the project has documented 1,101 killings.
Mapping Police Violence has found that most killings by officers begin with traffic stops, mental health checks, disturbances, nonviolent offenses, or incidents where no crime was reported.
The data also highlights a racial disparity in police violence, noting that Black Americans accounted for 27% of people killed by law enforcement last year even though they made up 13% of the national population.
Contact Arpan Lobo: alobo@freepress.com