Lyoya, a black man, was shot dead on April 4 by Officer Christopher Schurr, a white officer who was trying to arrest him after a traffic stop in a case that has caught national attention. Lyoya’s last moments were captured in several videos that were later released to the public.
“This is not a message. This is only based on facts and a decision in this case,” Kent County Attorney Christopher Becker told reporters on Thursday, referring to the indictment.
Becker said he had spoken to Lyoya’s family and sent them a letter in their native Swahili.
Ben Crump, a lawyer for the Lyoya family, described the decision as “a step in the right direction” in a statement.
“We are encouraged by the decision of attorney Christopher Becker to charge Christopher Schurr with the brutal murder of Patrick Lyoya, which we all witnessed when the video was released to the public,” Crump said.
“Officer Schurr,” he added, “must be responsible for his decision to chase an unarmed Patrick, finally shot him in the back of the head and killed him, only for a traffic stop.”
In a statement, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel congratulated Becker and state police on “the thorough review over the past two months.”
“We must now respect the judicial process and allow the facts of the case to be presented in court,” he added.
Becker said Schurr has been released and will likely be tried on Friday.
Becker, answering a question about the timing of the criminal indictment, said he received the state police investigation report about eight days ago.
“Things take time, and I want to be obviously thorough. That’s an important decision,” he said.
Becker stressed that prosecutors are not a branch of the police department. We work a lot with them, but we don’t work for them, “he said.
Schurr put down and suspended after firing
In May, Becker announced that he was seeking the guidance of outside experts before deciding whether to charge the officer. The city of Grand Rapids put the officer on paid leave and suspended his police powers after the shooting.
Lyoya, 26, was arrested by Schurr for an allegedly unregistered license plate. Lyoya got out of the car and ran. He resisted Schurr’s attempt to arrest him, and the officer shot him while the two were on the ground while Schurr struggled to control Lyoya.
Lyoya had three orders pending at the time she fled Schurr, and an autopsy revealed that her blood alcohol concentration was more than three times the legal limit.
The death sparked protests in Grand Rapids, where other police-resident interactions drew media scrutiny in a city with a history of tension between black residents and police.
The shooting led the state’s civil rights agency to renew an application to the Justice Department for an investigation of patterns and practices in the Grand Rapids Police Department, just one month after a new head of police took possession.
The county forensic doctor’s office released the results of the autopsy in early May, and the Grand Rapids Police Department released shipping records and written reports from officers who responded to the shooting in late May. ‘April.
Radio traffic, a computer-assisted shipment log accompanying it, and incident reports drafted clarified the moments before and after the officer shot Lyoya.
Radio traffic and other records released by the Grand Rapids police department show that Schurr told supervisors after the shooting that Lyoya “has my Taser.”
Schurr notified his dispatcher that he stopped a tanned car around 8:11 p.m. He told the dispatcher that a person ran from the stop about 75 seconds later and asked for more officers to respond about two minutes after the stop. Schurr told the dispatcher that he had been “involved in a shooting” about four minutes after the initial stop. The dispatcher said emergency medical services were en route about 11 seconds later.
Lyoya was driving with a driver’s license withdrawn at the time of the traffic stop. His license was revoked in March due to a third conviction for substance abuse in 10 years, according to public records. He had three orders open at the time of the traffic stop, according to a CNN review of state records.
It is unclear whether Schurr knew of the orders or the revoked license at the time Lyoya fled.
Lyoya fled on foot shortly after the stop. Records show that he was wanted in connection with a domestic violence case in April, which was charged with a second felony. Another order was issued in early April for non-appearance or payment. Another open order appeared in the court file related to a traffic accident due to damage to the property from which Lyoya allegedly fled. His family’s lawyers declined to comment on the open orders.
Becker’s review of the shooting is independent of the police department’s review of Schurr’s conduct. A review by the police department could lead to a much broader review of Schurr and whether he broke the department’s policies before, during and after the shooting, and look at other officers and policies that may have contributed to the shooting. The city has also pledged to review its agent-related policies.
Laura Ly, Virginia Langmaid, Pervaiz Shallwani, Samantha Beech, Rob Frehse, Jennifer Henderson, Omar Jimenez, Artemis Moshtaghian, Kristina Sgueglia, Amy Simonson, Laura Studley and Kiely Westhoff of CNN contributed to this report.