Video footage released by the Grand Rapids, Michigan police department shows a white police officer shooting 26-year-old Patrick Lyoya in the back of the head during an altercation on the ground. This was preceded by a traffic control that got out of hand.
After the videos were published, dozens of demonstrators gathered in the center of the city of 200,000 on Wednesday evening. They carried banners with the anti-racism slogan “Black Lives Matter.”
The incident had already occurred on April 4th. The video footage shows the unnamed police officer stopping Lyoya’s car and asking for a driver’s license. As a reason, the police officer states that the license plate does not match the car.
Lyoya, a Congolese refugee according to his family’s lawyer, who got out of the car, first asked his passenger for his driver’s license, but then ran away. A violent altercation with the police officer follows, with the two men struggling for the officer’s electric shock pistol.
Finally, another video shows the two fighting on the ground, with the policeman lying on Lyoya’s back at times. The officer yells, “Let go of the taser,” then pulls out his service weapon and shoots the 26-year-old in the back of the head. The police officer was on leave, but it was initially unclear whether charges would be brought against him.
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who represents the Lyoya family, wrote on Twitter that a police officer shot the 26-year-old “in the back of the head during a routine traffic stop.” “His family came to our country in search of the American dream, but instead they are living through a traumatic American nightmare.”
Source: Nachrichten
