Source: The Washington Post/Getty
Patrick Lyoya was killed by a Grand Rapids, Michigan police officer named Christopher Schurr in 2022 during a traffic stop. After a brief scuffle, Schurr had overpowered Lyoya but still felt it necessary to draw his service pistol and shoot him in the back of the neck. As usual, this horrific incident was caught on camera for the world to see. As a result, Schurr was charged with second-degree manslaughter. Since then, we hear very little about Patrick Lyoya and his parents are fed up.
According to MLive, the family recently gathered at his burial site to renew their call for justice and to warn local authorities that they were not going to quietly retire overnight…
“We have to find justice for Patrick. Everyone knows how Patrick’s life was taken, and today they are doing everything they can to file the case,” Patrick Lyoya’s father, Peter Lyoya, said through the performer Israel Siku.
“I’m asking everyone to stand up, to really stand up with power and strength to get justice for Patrick.”
The May 13 rally comes just a month after the one-year anniversary of Patrick’s death at the hands of Schurr on April 4, 2022. Ubiquitous civil rights attorney Ben Crump and co-counsel Ven Johnson are representing the family in a lawsuit for $100 million against the city and Schurr personally. The former police officer is set to start on October 24 after his defense lawyers were able to push the start date back from the date originally scheduled last March.
Our eyes will be all over this case and we’ll bring you the details as they unfold in real time.