Patrick Lyoya was “destroyed” by police, the family and supporters of the 26-year-old black man have said, a day after officers in the US state of Michigan released video footage showing an officer shooting Lyoya in the head Because that was at the bottom of the base.
Lyoya, whose family is originally from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, was fatally shot on April 4 after a traffic stop in Grand Rapids, Michigan, about 240 km (150 mi) northwest of Detroit. Was.
Speaking during a news conference on Thursday, Lyoya’s father, Peter Lyoya, said he never thought his eldest son could be killed by a police officer in the United States. “When I saw the video, my heart broke very much,” he said through a translator.
“Right now, my life is over. My life was Patrick, my son, ”Peter Lyoya told reporters.
He said, “To see this video that my son is killed like an animal by this police officer, I see that I have no life, I see my heart broken ” “I’m asking for justice. I’m asking for justice for Patrick.”
Lyoya’s killing has sparked protests and renewed calls for an end to police violence against black people in the US, where Black Lives Matter protests have been taking place since 2020. That year, an officer killed another unarmed black man, George Floyd, during an arrest. In Minneapolis, Minnesota – fueling widespread anger and demand for change.
Citing the need for transparency, police in Grand Rapids released video Wednesday showing the fatal shooting, including vital footage recorded by a passenger in Lyoya’s car that morning.
They show Lyoya getting out of the car on a rainy road, looking confused and asking “What did I do?” As the officer repeatedly asks for the driver’s license and orders him to go back inside the vehicle.
In the video, Lyoya is seen running away from the officer, who stopped him for driving with a license plate that did not belong to the vehicle. They fought in front of several houses and the officer repeatedly ordered Lyoya to “let go” of his taser, demanding at one point: “Drop the taser!”
Grand Rapids Police Chief Eric Winstrom said Wednesday that the fight over the Taser lasted about 90 seconds. In the final moments, the officer was on top of Lyoya, kneeling on his back several times to subdue him.
“In my view of the video, the Taser was deployed twice. Taser did not contact,” Winstrom told reporters. “And Mr. Loya was shot in the head. However, that is the only information I have.”
During Thursday’s news conference, prominent US civil rights attorney Ben Crump said the video contained “unnecessary, inappropriate, [and] Excessive use of lethal force. You see a police officer turn a minor traffic stop into a fatal execution.”
The officer had no reason to shoot Lyoya, Crump said, asking the family to charge the officers “to the fullest extent of the law for killing their son, breaking their hearts, orphaning their young children.” . “
“The video shows us this as her mother, father has said – a gallows. There’s no way to twist it or try to justify it,” Crump told reporters. “That’s why we’re demanding justice for Patrick.”
Grand Rapids police officers have placed the officer involved in the shooting, who has not been publicly named, on administrative leave and asked Michigan State Police to investigate.
Kent County prosecutors told Nation World News on Wednesday they would decide on possible criminal charges once the investigation is complete.
US Representative Brenda Lawrence of Michigan called for “full accountability and transparency” on Wednesday.
“To black Americans in Michigan and across the country, we are all familiar with this injustice. We don’t need another march. We don’t need another hashtag. We don’t need thoughts and prayers. We need action. , “He said Statement,
Last year, activists called on the US Congress to pass police reform legislation to name George Floyd, the unarmed black man whose murder at the hands of a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, sparked nationwide protests.
But Republicans and Democrats in the Senate could not reach an agreement.
During Thursday’s news conference, Kent County, Michigan Board of Commissioners member Robert Womack read out the names of black people killed by police in the US in recent years: “Bryona Taylor, George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Patrick Lyoya.”
“Ever since we came to this country, the United States of America, which we call home, we have been begging you to just let us live. We are asking you to let us breathe,” Womack said.
“They have just passed the anti-lynching bill into law; Does humanity need a law to understand that some marginalized communities do not deserve to be lynched, shot or hanged?”
