Preliminary Hearing for White Cop Charged w/Murder of Patrick Lyoya is Today. Cop Too Weak to Subdue Black Man Shot Him in the Head Rather than Let Him Go After Questionable Traffic Stop
/From [HERE] In the six months since a police officer shot a Black man in the back of the head following a struggle over a Taser, the public has been privy to many of the details.
Grand Rapids police released bodycam and cellphone videos showing the moments leading up to and the fatal shooting, MLive and other news organizations reported details about the police investigation through Freedom of Information Act requests and an eyewitness provided his account of what happened.
Despite those details, a couple questions remain unanswered in the case against police officer Christopher Schurr, who is charged with second-degree murder in the killing of Patrick Lyoya.
· What did Schurr say in his statement to Michigan State Police?
· What caused the officer to search the database for the license plate on the car Lyoya was driving?
The answers to those questions may come during the pivotal preliminary court hearing set for Thursday at the Kent County Courthouse in downtown Grand Rapids. The hearing is scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m. Thursday.
The hearing will broadcast on YouTube from Grand Rapids District Judge Nicholas Ayoub’s courtroom.
Ayoub will ultimately decide if the prosecution has presented enough evidence to send the case to trial. If testimony doesn’t wrap up on Thursday, the parties will reconvene for a second day on Friday, Oct. 28.
Schurr, a 31-year-old who has since been fired from the Grand Rapids Police Department, shot Lyoya, a 24-year-old, in the back of the head the morning of April 4, during a struggle following a traffic stop on Grand Rapids’ Southeast Side. Lyoya was driving a vehicle with a license plate that didn’t match.
The two later fought over control of Schurr’s Taser before the officer fired his weapon into the back of Lyoya’s head while on top of him. [MORE]