Lioja was stopped for allegedly unregistered registration number by Shur on April 4th. Lioya got out of the car and ran, resisting Shur’s attempt to arrest him. Shur shot him while they were on the ground, while Shur was fighting for control of Lioya, and Shur said Lioya had his electric shock. Lioya had three unfulfilled orders when he fled Shur, and an autopsy showed that his blood alcohol level was more than three times the legal limit for a driver.
The Michigan State Police (MSP) handed over a partial investigation file in late April to the Kent County Attorney’s Office, and after the prosecutor initially reviewed the case, he sought additional information from the police agency and the manufacturer of the equipment used by the officer. The district’s forensic doctor issued an autopsy in early May after rapid toxicology tests, the prosecutor said.
Lioja’s death – from a shot to the back of the head – led to protests in Grand Rapids, where other police-residents interactions attracted media attention and is 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.
By offering a loose roadmap for the past month, Prosecutor Becker sought to allay concerns about the pace of the investigation by publicly acknowledging the need for more investigative material and consulting with state and national experts before deciding to prosecute.
“I admit that the investigation seems to be moving slowly,” Becker said in a press release last month. “However, as in all cases that come before this office, it is imperative that I review all the facts and evidence before deciding on a charge. In this situation, my decision can only be taken by taking the time to gather all available information – both from SMEs and from state and national experts. ”
After the shooting, authorities released some materials that prosecutors typically review to determine whether criminal charges against an employee are justified. Some of these materials were from requests for recordings, and other materials were released in response to the public protest over the shooting. A CNN review of the documents gives a clearer picture of what happened in the morning when Lioja was shot and killed, and what prosecutors are considering as they decide whether to press charges against Shur.
The prosecutor will draw on materials that have appeared in public and some that have not. Apart from that, Shur’s future with the department is unclear; he is on administrative leave and a separate administrative investigation into his behavior is under way. Records released over the past few weeks show that Shur has been repeatedly praised for his proactive policing and foot persecution prior to the shooting.
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.
Grand Rapids Police Chief Eric Winstrom said the department needed better training; officials announced his hiring in early February, and he had been on duty for less than a month when Shur shot Lioya.
If the district attorney rejects the allegations, much of the investigation materials should be available for public review. If the prosecutor charges, this material will remain secret while the state prepares a case against the employee.
A clearer picture of the struggle emerges
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.; told the dispatcher that one man had fled the station about 75 seconds later and asked more staff to respond about two minutes after the stop; and informed the dispatcher that he was “involved in a shooting” about four minutes after the initial stop. The dispatcher confirmed and said that the emergency medical services were on the road 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.
It is unclear whether Shur knew about the orders or the license revoked during Lioja’s escape. The video shows Shur telling Lioya that the license plate does not belong to the car, but there is nothing in the published audio or documentation to show how Shur knew this or what else he may have known. A spokesman for the Grand Rapids Police Department did not respond to a request for comment.
Leia ran away shortly after the stop. Records show that he was wanted in connection with a domestic violence case in April, charged with a second crime. Another non-payment or non-payment order was issued in early April. Another open order appeared in the court record, related to a car accident with property damage, for which it is alleged that Lioya escaped. His family’s lawyers declined to comment on the orders.
Shur fights with Lioja for a few seconds before asking for more police support. The two continued to fight. Leia was not armed at the time of the shooting, according to a family lawyer. It is said that the policeman who shot Lioya said “release the electric shock” before making the fatal shot.
One witness told another officer that Lioya “took the electric shock from the police officer”, according to the police officer’s summary from the witness’s interview, and that the police officer tried to use the electric shock but did not work.
A police radio supervisor said he was “on site” about five minutes after the initial stop. A few seconds later, another supervisor asked about the location of the “subject”, asked if he had access to any weapons and where he was headed.
“He has my Taser,” Shur replied.
About eight minutes after the shooting, with many police officers and at least one chief of the scene, they approached Lioja to “help”. According to published records, this was delayed in part by Lioja’s passenger, whom employees suspect is intoxicated and unresponsive to commands. The identity of the passenger has not been revealed and their name has been edited in publicly published records.
The supervisor’s report says he found Shur’s body-worn camera under Lioja when he first approached him, and Shur’s taser was found under Lioja after he rolled Lioja to start the officers chest compression.
This supervisor, a sergeant, wrote in his report that he had arrived to find a man face down in the front yard with Shur, “hiding behind a tree in the alley.”
“The man’s hand was hidden under his body near his waist, probably hiding a weapon. I did not know if the suspect shot at police officer Shur,” the sergeant wrote.
The officers checked the stopped Altima and approached Lioja, the officers providing “deadly cover” as the sergeant approached him. In his report, the sergeant said he thought the part of the body-worn camera protruding from Lioya was a pistol grip, but when he approached, he “could tell that it was Officer Shur’s body camera, which was apparently displaced during the struggle. ”
The sergeant rolled over Lioya and found Shur’s electric shock and his body-worn camera, which he was still recording, according to the report. Employees began compressing the chest and an employee brought a defibrillator. They performed cardiac resuscitation until the medics arrived, according to the report.
About 17 minutes after the traffic was stopped, a warden said there were no suspects and that a passenger in the car was “safe”.
Kent County Attorney Christopher Becker opposed the release of a video of the case, but not indefinitely. He said he wanted investigators to be able to question potential witnesses before encountering a video that will be released after it is published.
“This … can obscure what you remember, people remember things and see video and (it) changes what they remember because, oh, yes, I see it that way now,” Becker said. “That was my concern.”
Kent County Criminal Procedure
Kent County police agencies are not investigating shootings by their employees, Becker said. Each agency has an agreement with another to investigate the shootings, and investigators then hand over the files to Becker’s office for review.
“Every shooting is different, … they collect things, we look at them. If we need follow-up, we’ll say hey, it needs to be investigated, but it’s all done through an outside agency,” he said.
Becker said he usually issues an opinion, along with a press release, when making a decision after an officer shoots someone. He has dealt with about a dozen cases since his election in 2016, he said.
Following the shooting, NAACP president at Greater Grand Rapids, Cla Jackson, called on Becker to withdraw from the investigation and the Michigan Attorney General to take over the case. Jackson cited “the historic relationship between the Kent County Attorney’s Office and the Grand Rapids Police Department” as the reason why “a fair and impartial investigation cannot be conducted.”
Jackson has asked Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel to take over the investigation. In a statement, Nessel’s office said it was available to help Becker if Becker believed the aid would be “justified.”
Becker said he would not withdraw from the case because the legal standard for recusal does not …
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