The white police officer who fatally shot Patrick Lyoya in the head during a traffic stop in Grand Rapids, Michigan, was finally identified on Monday, three weeks after the horrific incident was captured on video.
Local police said Officer Christopher Schurr, who has been with the department since 2015, was placed on administrative leave in connection with the April 4 shooting death of Lyoya, a 26-year-old Black man.
Authorities said Lyoya fled a traffic stop just prior to the shooting, and that he appeared to grab the cop’s taser during an ensuing struggle. There is no evidence that Lyoya was armed before the fatal incident, and body-camera and other footage showed a stop that began with a dispute over vehicle registration end with a man being shot, apparently from behind and with his face down.
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Kent County prosecutors have said they will wait for the conclusion of a state police investigation to decide on any possible charges against Schurr, who could not immediately be reached for comment. Protests have been a fixture in the city in recent days, fueled by anger over a legacy of police violence and misconduct toward local communities of color.
“An intentional three-week delay in releasing the name of the involved officer, which they clearly knew at the moment of the shooting, is offensive and the exact opposite of being ‘transparent,’” Ven Johnson, an attorney representing the Lyoya family, said in a statement. “Once again, we see the Grand Rapids Police Department taking care of its own at the expense of the family’s mental health and well-being.”
Chief Eric Winstrom had said in a Monday statement that the decision to name the officer who killed Lyoya was in “the interest of transparency, to reduce on-going speculation, and to avoid any further confusion” in the case that has garnered national attention.
While authorities have not released further details about Schurr, local media reports showed someone by that name graduating from Sienna Heights University in 2014 with a degree in criminal justice.
In a 2014 interview with MLive, Chris Schurr said he was engaged to his high-school sweetheart, and that the couple had plans to get married in Kenya after visiting on a trip building houses through their church.
“We were asked to go again this year, but we couldn’t afford a wedding and the trip, so we decided to combine them,” Schurr told the outlet, noting that the couple had planned to wear traditional Kenyan wedding attire.
The official release of Schurr’s name comes days after Lyoya’s funeral, where Rev. Al Sharpton demanded justice for the fatal shooting of Lyoya, an immigrant from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
“Every time a young Black man or woman is arrested in this town, you put their name all over the news. Every time we’re suspected of something, you put our name out there,” Sharpton said to a packed crowed at the Renaissance Church of God in Christ on Friday, adding,“How dare you hold the name of a man that killed this man. We want his name!”
Sharpton also called for a federal investigation into the killing.
Forensic pathologist Dr. Werner Spitz, who was retained by Lyoya’s family, revealed last week he believed Schurr’s gun was pressed to the back of Lyoya’s head when he was shot—and that he sustained no other wounds in the incident.
Authorities have not released an official autopsy, though they indicated in Monday’s statement that documents would be released to the public shortly.
—with reporting by William Bredderman
