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Michigan authorities have released video from different vantage points of a tragic officer-involved shooting in the city of Grand Rapids.
What started out as a routine traffic stop for mismatched plates resulted in the fatal shooting of motorist Patrick Lyoya, an immigrant from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, after an alleged struggle over a Taser.
The unidentified police officer, a seven-year member of the Grand Rapids PD, is on administrative leave while the probe by the Michigan State Police into the April 4 incident is pending. Investigators will turn their findings over to Kent County prosecutors who will determine if any charges are appropriate.
In the bodycam portion of the video, Lyoya , 26, gets out of the car even though the officer tells him to stay in the vehicle. After explaining the purpose of the stop and confirming that the motorist speaks English, the officer asks for the motorist’s driver’s license. That’s when the situation appeared to get out of hand.
Lyoya seemed to ask a passenger to get his license and appeared to try to walk away. That’s when the two men started grappling. The officer tackled the motorist after a brief foot chase and they struggled on the ground in front of a residence, with the officer repeatedly shouting “stop.”
You can review the footage embedded below (which contains a warning for graphic content) and form your own conclusions:
During the altercation, as alluded to above, the officer allegedly tried to deploy a Taser, CBS News reported.
“At some point, although it is not clear exactly when due to the close proximity of the struggle and poor camera quality from the surveillance video across the street, the officer takes out his Taser. He can be heard firing it twice, but, according to Cedar Rapids Police Chief Eric Winstrom, the Taser missed Lyoya both times,” the outlet reported, incorrectly naming Winstrom who is Grand Rapids police chief.
“The two continue to struggle and at certain moments it appears that both men have their hands on the weapon. The two men fall to the ground again as the officer repeatedly tells Lyoya to let go of the Taser. At one point, the passenger can be heard saying that Lyoya isn’t touching the Taser,” according to CBS News.
“With Lyoya face down on the ground, the officer manages to get on top of him. The officer, still telling Lyoya to let go of the Taser, then takes out his gun and shoots Lyoya in the head.”
Backup officers subsequently arrived on the scene.
According to Chief Winstrom, the officer’s bodycam was deactivated at one point during the fray because the record button was inadvertently pressed three times.
Details are still unfolding in this incident. The medical examiner has completed an autopsy; toxicology tests are forthcoming.
The Loyoya family has retained prominent civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who also represented the families of George Floyd and Jacob Blake, among others.
‘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,” Crump said, according to the Associated Press.
The shooting prompted protests outside the Grand Rapids city hall and police station.
HAPPENING NOW: Hundreds gather outside the Grand Rapids Police Department to protest the shooting of 26-year-old Patrick Lyoya. Police released videos of the deadly police shooting earlier today. @wwmtnews pic.twitter.com/tU0Drx3NJo
— Trisha McCauley (@TrishaMTweets) April 13, 2022
“I view it as a tragedy….It was a progression of sadness for me,” Winstrom added.
Prosecutor Chris Becker seemed to imply that there should be no rush to judgment. “While the videos released today are an important piece of evidence, they are not all of the evidence,” he noted.
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Robert Jonathan is a staff writer for BizPac Review. He is a longtime writer/editor for news aggregation websites and has also developed content in the legal and financial publishing sectors as well as for online education. He earned a Juris Doctorate from the University of Connecticut School of Law, “a law school the basketball teams can be proud of.”
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31 thoughts on “Michigan police release footage of white cop shooting black suspect in head during struggle over taser”
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And here we go again. The people who want to rush to judgement against this officer needs to put themselves in his place. Was this guy an illegal and that’s why he wouldn’t comply with the officer’s requests? One can only wonder. This is where the line needs to be drawn. If an officer makes a traffic stop, do what you are told to do. Why is it OK to refuse an officer and then fight with him? Had this guy been white, would there be all this backlash? I doubt it. Seems like it’s perfectly fine to defy the police these days. These men and women put their uniform on every day and risk their lives to protect and defend their communities and this is the way they get treated. I don’t care what color skin you have, if you can’t live in this country and obey and abide by our laws, then don’t come here, or face the consequences of your own actions.
If the driver had been white, we never would have heard the story. Maybe a small byline in the local news.
It’s evident that public propaganda schools don’t teach blacks how to follow directions. I am now convinced as to why blacks appear to get shot, at what seems to be ten times the rate of whites. And it was always there, right in front of our noses. Blacks find it extremely difficult to follow directions and that should now be a more important curriculum than changing their sex from time to time. I see that Forrest Gumps buddy, Bubba, is back on the scene..hustling.
Wait?
Why is Ben Crump trying to claim that this was the shooting of an UNARMED black man?
The “unarmed black man (Patrick Lyoya) was NOT unarmed, Lyoya had the officer’s taser, and in every state that I have researched, when a person takes an officer’s taser, they are considered a lethal threat.
Lyoya escalated the situation when the cop asked for his license and he started fighting the cop. This is NOT the cop’s fault.
But the press will rake this poor cop over the coals and make it appear the cop was racist.
They always have to show their butts and this one did it all the way to the end and then some. You might say that this brain dead idiot ended up brain dead. One ten cent bullet saved us a lot of needlessly spent tax money. Ill lose no tears over him. The only way to make him an asset to society would be to turn him into dog food or fertilizer.
So far it hasn’t started a new country-wide rioting, burning, and looting, knock on wood. BLM needs a new headliner to start the money flowing in again after all the mansion scandals. I doubt this time they’ll get a ton of activist crackers to join them.
I get paid $15,000 each to track, locate and “eliminate” spamclowns.
100% satisfaction guaranteed.
Hey look – another yahoo posting clickbait on here
Go suck an egg
𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬𝐜𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐤.𝐜𝐨𝐦
What was this piece of black african trash doing in the US in the first place? Thank the gods it’s dead. Good work officer. Let’s keep the sleezy, bottom-feeding lawyers out of this and give the cop a bonus for protecting the neighborhood.
Another 13%er resisting and paying the price! Good job officer!
om-feeding lawyers out of this and give the cop a bonus for protecting the neighborhood.
An “immigrant” who was confused and scared that had plates that didn’t belong on that vehicle & obviously, no license. He was so scared, he grabbed the taser & tried using it on the cop.
Mostly Likely, an Illegal immigrant allowed to freely come Here by the current administration.
That cop should have never let him open that car door with or without a passenger sitting in it, there could have been a gun!
“That cop should have never let him open that car door “
Agree completely with the exception of the statement above which implies that somehow the officer was in any way responsible for this outcome. The officer told the guy not to get out of the car and then the guy proceeded to disobey every instruction the officer gave him. Get into an altercation as a result and end up dead.
BTW, George Floyd died of a Fentanyl over dose. He was complaining that he couldn’t breathe before he was cuffed. The officers involved in that situation need to be pardoned immediately.
One of 3 0r 4 million illegal leakers and very fine citizens……NOT!
He didn’t let him the guy was out before the Cop was and he told him to stay in the car twice!
The gingers feel they can do whatever they want, surprise we have laws that the gingers refuse to follow.
The gingers will never learn, I guess its because they are stupid, but go ahead continue to fight with the police.
How about this headline instead. Police release video of another black suspect who escalated a minor traffic stop by running from the officer, violently resists arrest, tries to forcibly take one of the white officers weapons, that he would probably use against the officer… and gets shot by the officer who feared for his life.
you a$$holes will protest the shooting of someone who is shot by a cop, even if it’s justified, but say absolutely nothing when a cop is shot execution-style while in their cruiser, or after having been disarmed by the “suspect”. Your anger is misguided…you put up memorials to a drug-addict who died while under arrest, even though HE had enough fentanyl in his system to kill most people. Pfaugh!!!!
Expect anything different from the Ginger community
Another black failing to comply and fighting with police – yet it is the cops fault for it all
The LEO should have shot the unflushable while he was still in the car. The result would be the same. This copper is going to be kangarooed into the gray bar hotel.
Which town is it ?
Cedar Rapids or Grand Rapids ?
Grand Rapids, Michigan. Cedar Rapids is in Iowa.
Obey lawful orders.
With Crump showing up this will get tons of bad press towards the police. This guy needs to be put out of our misery.
Here we go again.
All because a black would not follow the instructions of a law enforcement officer. Damn, we need to tighten our immigration laws.
The laws already on the books are adequate, if someone would just make some small attempt to enforce them.
They do try to enforce them, it’s just that they’re not followed by the 13%ers.