Lioya, a black man, was shot to death on April 4 by police officer Christopher Schur, a white officer who was trying to arrest him after the movement was stopped in a case that drew national attention. Lioja’s last moments were filmed in a number of videos later released to the public.
“This is not a message. This is based only on the facts and a decision in this case, “Kent County Attorney Christopher Becker told reporters on Thursday, citing the prosecution.
Becker said he spoke to Lioya’s family and sent them a letter to their native Swahili.
In a statement, Ben Crump, a lawyer for the Lioya family, called the indictment a “step in the right direction.”
“We are encouraged by the decision of attorney Christopher Becker to charge Christopher Schur with the brutal murder of Patrick Lioya, which we all witnessed when the video was released to the public,” Crump said.
“Officer Schur,” he added, “must be held accountable for his decision to pursue an unarmed Patrick, eventually shooting him in the back of the head and killing him – for nothing more than stopping traffic.”
In a statement, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel praised Becker and state police for “the comprehensive review conducted over the past two months.”
“We must now respect the trial and allow the facts of the case to be presented in court,” he added.
Becker said Shur had surrendered and was likely to stand trial on Friday.
In May, Becker announced that he was seeking guidance from outside experts before deciding whether to blame the employee. The city of Grand Rapids put the officer on paid leave and terminated his police powers after the shooting.
26-year-old Lioja was stopped by Shur because of an allegedly unregistered number. Leia got out of the car and ran. He resisted Shur’s attempt to arrest him, and the officer shot him while they were on the ground, while Shur was fighting for control of Lioya.
Lioya had three unfulfilled orders at the time he escaped from Shur, and an autopsy revealed that his blood alcohol level was more than three times the legal limit.
The deaths sparked protests in Grand Rapids, where other police-residents interactions drew media attention to a city with a history of tensions between blacks and police.
The shooting prompted the U.S. Civil Rights Agency to renew a request to investigate a model and practice from the Justice Department at the Grand Rapids Police Department just one month after a new police chief took office.
The district forensic service released the results of its autopsy in early May, and the Grand Rapids Police Department released records and reports written by officials who responded to the shooting in late April.
Radio traffic, the accompanying computer-aided shipping diary, and edited incident reports shed some light on the moments before and after the police officer shot Lioya.
Radio traffic and other recordings published by the Grand Rapids Police Department show that the police officer who shot Lioja told the supervisory authorities after the shooting that Lioja “has my taser”.
Shur informed his dispatcher that he had stopped a dark red car around 8:11 a.m. He told the dispatcher that a man had fled the bus stop about 75 seconds later and asked more staff to respond about two minutes after the stop. Shur told the dispatcher that he was “involved in a shooting” about four minutes after the initial stop. The dispatcher said the ambulance was on the way about 11 seconds later.
Leia was driving with her license revoked at the time of the traffic stop. His license was revoked in March over a third sentence of substance abuse in 10 years, according to public documents. He had three open orders during the traffic stop, according to a CNN review of government records.
Laura Lee, Virginia Langmaid, Pervais Shalouani, Samantha Beach, Rob Freze, Jennifer Henderson, Omar Jimenez, Artemis Moschagian, Christina Sguglia, Amy Simmonson, Laura Studley and Kylie Westoff contributed to this report.
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