Lyoya, a 26-year-old Congolese immigrant who sought U.S. refuge with his family from violence in his homeland, was shot in the back of the head while facedown on the ground after a traffic stop in 2022.
Schurr’s attorneys said in their opening statements that the officer acted in self-defense, while prosecutors began to make their case that the deadly use of force was unnecessary and excessive.
Early witnesses for prosecutors included three men who saw the struggle and shooting, along with police investigators and a medical examiner who testified the gun was “probably” right up against Lyoya's head.
The trial is scheduled to resume on Tuesday.
What happened?
Schurr pulled over a vehicle driven by Lyoya for improper license plates on a rainy morning, April 4, 2022, in a Grand Rapids residential neighborhood.
Body camera and dash camera footage shows Lyoya running from Schurr after he requests his driver's license. Schurr tackles Lyoya and a struggle ensues as Schurr attempts to shoot his Taser at Lyoya.
Schurr’s body camera footage appears to show Lyoya reaching for the officer’s Taser. The body camera footage goes out before the shooting.
A passenger in Lyoya's car recorded video. The cellphone footage shows the officer telling Lyoya to let go of the Taser multiple times.
While Lyoya is facedown on the ground with Schurr on top of him, the officer takes out his firearm and shoots Lyoya once in the back of the head.
As prosecutors played the video Monday for the first time for jurors, Lyoya's mother and father broke into tears when the gunshot rang out from the video. His mother then covered her eyes.
Prosecutors called witnesses who saw the traffic stop, ensuing struggle or fatal shooting. The witnesses included the passenger who recorded the cellphone video and a neighborhood resident who saw the struggle between Lyoya and Schurr, but went back inside his house before Lyoya was shot.
The resident, Wayne Butler, said Schurr had control. Butler said he tried to tell Lyoya to comply with the officer's commands.
“In America's history, this is how it ends every time,” he said.
The videos, in addition to a doorbell security video from a nearby house, were repeatedly shown throughout the day. Testimony from one witness focused on a synced view of the angles played simultaneously.
Ven Johnson, an attorney representing Lyoya's family in a separate civil case, said it was “devastating” for the family to see the footage and an autopsy photo of Lyoya's head.
Who was Patrick Lyoya?
Lyoya’s family has said he came to the U.S. to escape prolonged civil unrest by several rebel groups vying for control of territories in the mineral-rich eastern Congo. He was raising two children in Grand Rapids, a city of around 200,000 people, some 150 miles (240 kilometers) northwest of Detroit.
Following his arrival, Lyoya ultimately joined a list of names of Black immigrants who sought better lives in the U.S. only to suffer abuse or death at the hands of law enforcement. Before him, there was Botham Jean, Amadou Diallo and Abner Louima, all men whose cases increased awareness around the global impact of systemic racism in policing.
The Rev. Al Sharpton, the civil rights leader who eulogized Lyoya at his 2022 funeral, noted then that Lyoya was killed on April 4, the anniversary of the 1968 assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Lyoya, in searching for a better life, "ran into an America that we know too well," Sharpton said.
Lyoya's killing prompted weeks of protest in the west Michigan city and calls to reform the police department.
Who is Christopher Schurr?
Schurr, now 34, was fired by the police department shortly after he was charged with one count of second-degree murder in June 2022.
He had worked for the department for seven years.
Schurr has said he acted in self-defense. If convicted, he faces up to life in prison.
Schurr was attentive as opening statements were given, occasionally turning to discuss with his attorneys. He watched the cellphone video that was played for the jury.
How significant is the Taser?
Tasers are generally considered nonlethal by police but the narrative often flips when handled by someone who is not law enforcement, said Ian Adams, a professor of criminology at the University of South Carolina. Whether Schurr gave proper warning of his use of lethal force also will likely be of note to the jury, Adams said.
Both legal teams directly spoke to that issue in their opening statements Monday.
“A lot of what you’re going to hear about is this Taser,” Kent County Prosecutor Christopher Becker said. Becker said the Taser already had been deployed twice and therefore did not pose a threat to Schurr.
Mikayla Hamilton, one of Schurr's attorneys, said Schurr acted within reason and Lyoya's resistance signaled danger to the officer. Picking up the Taser from a table as she spoke, she said it can cause injury even after it is deployed.
“Officer Schurr was flooded with fear,” she said.
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Associated Press writer Fernanda Figueroa in Austin, Texas, contributed.
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