The Grand Rapids Police Department said Lioja was killed after an officer’s gun was “fired” during a “long fight”. But a spokesman for Lioya’s family told CNN that he had seen a video of the shooting and believed the 26-year-old had been killed “in the style of execution”.
Speaking at a news conference, city manager Mark Washington offered his condolences to Patrick Lioya’s family and described the video as “painful to watch”.
The department distributed footage from the police body camera, dashboard, mobile phone and home surveillance system of the deadly incident.
Police said before the press conference that neither the videos nor the audio had been edited. Some video images have been edited or blurred to ensure privacy.
The incident began shortly after 8 a.m. on April 4, when police said they had stopped a vehicle to stop traffic. The driver, who is already known to be Lioja, got out of the vehicle and fled at one point, Grand Rapids police said at the time.
Not long after, “There was a long struggle, I was told it was more than a minute and a half or two minutes of fighting,” police chief Eric Winstrom said earlier.
“During the battle, the officer’s weapon was fired, killing the man,” he added.
The Lioja family moved from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the United States in 2014 and worked with their representative, Pastor Israel Siku, after Patrick’s death. Siku’s first language is Swahili and he also acts as a translator for Lioya.
He told CNN that he was with Lioja’s father just days after the shooting, when they were invited by police to review a video of the shooting.
Siku described his father’s reaction to watching the video: “He melted (betrayed), he had nothing to say. He almost fainted.”
At a community forum on Sunday, Siku told a church full of people, “I saw the video, I couldn’t sleep.”
“The boy was on the floor, the cop, while lying on top of him, pulled out a gun and shot him in the head and back. Patrick did not move,” he added.
There were many protests and rallies on behalf of Lioja. Dozens of people called for justice Tuesday night as they gathered in front of a city commission meeting. During the nearly five-hour meeting, 74 of the 75 members of the public who spoke out expressed outrage and grief at Lioja’s death.
In a statement to CNN, Grand Rapids Mayor Rosalyn Bliss said in part: “We all work through a range of emotions from anger to confusion to grief, but I am confident as a community that we are also patient and unwavering in our commitment to the truth.”
Michigan State Police is investigating
Civil rights lawyer Benjamin Crump – who was a high-profile victim of police violence – was detained by the Lioja family and demanded the release of all available videos.
“It reminds us again how quickly police interaction can become deadly to blacks in America and how far we have to go to change that,” Crump said.
The investigation was handed over to the Michigan State Police shortly after the shooting, Grand Rapids police said. The state agency confirmed to CNN that it is investigating at the request of the department and this is an “active, ongoing investigation.” Once completed, it will be handed over to the district attorney for possible charges.
Kent County Attorney Christopher Becker told CNN that no decision has been made regarding the employee because the investigation has not been completed. As for the upcoming video release, he said: “They have to do what they think is best and I will not criticize it.” In a statement on April 7, he said: “In order to maintain the integrity of this investigation, I asked the participating police agencies not to release any evidence until the investigation is completed.”
The Grand Rapids Police Department said both Michigan and Becker police were aware of the planned release. The results of the ongoing investigation will also be made available to the Grand Rapids police chief and the department’s internal affairs department, Winstrom said in a statement.
“This is the use of deadly force. The test of deadly force is that a police officer has the right to use deadly force when defending himself against a reasonable threat of death or grievous bodily harm,” Winstrom said shortly after the shooting.
“This will be the test that Michigan police used when they first examined it. And it will be the same test I use to review it after their investigation is handed over to us.”
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