Patrick Lyoya's death was an 'execution', civil rights lawyer says

Family seeking charges against officer who fatally shot Congolese refugee

Lawyers for Patrick Lyoya's family said the Michigan officer who fatally shot the Congolese refugee in the back of the head should be sacked and prosecuted for the “execution".

A video released on Wednesday showed Lyoya, from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, running from an officer who stopped him because his licence plate did not belong to his vehicle.

During the encounter on April 4, the officer demanded to see Lyoya's driving licence and a foot chase began soon afterwards, video released by Grand Rapids police shows.

“The video shows us that this is as his mother and father have said — an execution. And there is no way to try to spin it or justify,” prominent civil rights attorney Ben Crump said during a news conference.

“It is an unjustifiable use of deadly force because the police escalated a traffic stop into an execution.”

Grand Rapids Police Chief Eric Winstrom said a fight over the officer's Taser lasted for about 90 seconds. Shortly after that, the officer was on top of Lyoya, sometimes placing his knee on his back.

“From my view of the video, Taser was deployed twice. Taser did not make contact,” Mr Winstrom said.

The officer had no fear of the Taser being used against him because it was ineffective without being reloaded, Mr Crump argued.

Lyoya's family asked that police release the identity of the officer who killed him.

His brothers and sisters want to know who killed him and would like to see his picture so they can know “this is the person that took our beloved one", said Peter Lyoya, the father.

Speaking to reporters through a translator, Mr Lyoya said his son was “killed like an animal".

Peter Lyoya took his six children in 2014 to escape violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo amid civil unrest in the country.

Dorcas Lyoya, Patrick's mother, thought her family were safe after fleeing their country, only to be “astonished to see that my son has been killed with [a] bullet”.

“That was my beloved son. You know how you love your firstborn son,” she said through an interpreter.

Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the Grand Rapids Police Department after video of Lyoya's death was released on Wednesday. The demonstration remained nonviolent.

Chris Becker, a prosecutor who will determine if charges are warranted, said the public should not anticipate a quick decision.

Grand Rapids has occasionally faced criticism over excessive police force, particularly against black people. In 2017 a group of five unarmed youths were held at gunpoint as they were walking home from playing basketball, local media reported at the time.

A bipartisan group of state lawmakers introduced a package of police reform bills to commemorate the anniversary of George Floyd's death in 2021, but they remain stuck in the committee with no clear timetable on becoming law.

Marshall Bullock, one of the bills' co-sponsors, called the incident an “execution-style shooting” and said justice cannot exist when police training and accountability is “an afterthought".

“As a black man, I am angry, scared, outraged and completely frustrated that we are, yet again, revisiting a tragedy that occurs too often in the black community,” he said in a statement after video of Lyoya's death was released.

Black people make up 18 per cent of Grand Rapids's population, data from the 2021 US census showed.

The Associated Press contributed to this report