Ex-officer Schurr testifies in murder trial over Lyoya shooting

• Ex-Grand Rapids police officer Christopher Schurr testified in his personal protection on 2 Could and advised Jury members that he shot Patrick Lyoya for concern of his personal security.
• Schurr is confronted with one indictment of second -degree homicide.
• A lawyer for the Lyoya household mentioned that nothing Schurr might have justified with deadly violence.

Grand Rapids-Christopher Schurr, the previous police officer who was accused of second-degree homicide of the taking pictures at Patrick Lyoya in Grand Rapids in 2022, spoke to the viewers for the primary time because the dying of Lyoya when he took in his personal protection.

Schurr advised the jury within the seventeenth Circuit Court docket of Kent County that he was afraid of his life after a bodily battle with Lyoya, a Congolese immigrant who was 26 on the time of his dying. He mentioned Lyoya had tried to take his taser.

“I imagine that if I did not do what I did once I did it, I would not be right here right now,” he mentioned. In the direction of the top of Schurr’s direct testimony, he wiped his eyes and took deep breath.

Friday marked the fifth day of the method. Schurr, now 34, was a Grand Rapids police officer when he tried to cross Lyoya for a site visitors cease due to the license plate that didn’t match the car of Lyoya on April 4, 2022. Lyoya tried to run away from Schurr, who approached him on a close-by frontgrader. Schurr tried to make use of a taser on Lyoya, however missed. Whereas the 2 have been struggling, Lyoya tried to take the taser“ Photos launched by the Grand Rapids Police Division (GRPD) and performed within the court docket reveals. Simply earlier than Schurr fired his gun, he shouted: “Let go of the taser,” reveals photographs.

Schurr testified that he believed, primarily based on his coaching and primarily based on how Lyoya tried to get away from him whereas he chased him that if Lyoya had been possessed from the Taser, he would have deployed it on Schurr.

“I shot him as a result of I believed he was going to apply it to me,” mentioned Schurr.

Schurr didn’t must testify in his personal protection. “I really feel you will need to take away my facet of the story,” he mentioned.

The general public prosecutor of Kent County Chris Becker, who accused Schurr in June 2022, has argued that Schurr used extreme violence. In the course of the course of, Becker famous that each cartridges of the taser have been used, which signifies that its results might solely be utilized in a “drive -stun” approach, the place the top of the taser is pressed towards an individual. Justice officers argued that Lyoya had not identified how he might carry out a Drive anesthesia with out coaching.

Schurr testified his coaching, each with the GRPD and in a police academy earlier than reaching the division in 2015, indicated that disarming a weapon meant {that a} topic might do it towards the officer. Schurr mentioned he feared that Lyoya would have entry to his firearm if the officer was incapacitated for work via the Taser.

Schurr was fired from the division shortly after he was sued in June 2022. If convicted of homicide within the second -degree, he’s against life in jail.

Protection attorneys claimed that Schurr acted out of self -defense. In the course of the course of, the protection known as numerous present and retired GRPD officers to testify about how officers are educated. Witnesses of the protection have testified that Schurr acted in his training when he shot Lyoya.

“It was affordable. An inexpensive officer might act in the identical approach in that state of affairs,” examined GRPD Capt. David Siver on April 30.

Ben Crump, a lawyer who represents the Lyoya household in a separate civil lawsuit towards Schurr, advised the media after Schurr’s testimony that Lyoya was attempting to get away from the officer, and that Schurr had no justification in taking pictures Lyoya.

“We pray for justice. The household believes that nothing justifies him that Patrick Lyoya is in thoughts,” mentioned Crump, standing with members of the Lyoya household. “It was at most a site visitors cease. That shouldn’t be the identical as a dying sentence.”

Schurr was on the usual for nearly three hours. Circuit decide Christina Mims, who presents the method, has enabled the jury to submit questions for witnesses. Jury members did Schurr concerning the GRPD coverage, together with if Schurr was justified to make use of his taser as quickly as Lyoya tried to run away, relatively than throughout the bodily battle. Schurr testified that he didn’t need to use the taser whereas Lyoya was working as a result of he might have fallen on concrete and had been injured.

The testimony continues on Friday afternoon. Outdoors the courthouse within the heart of Grand Rapids, a handful of protesters gathered. Some wore skinny blue line flags, which have turn out to be a typical image of assist for regulation enforcement. Others holding indicators for justice for Lyoya, and a flag with “BLM” on it, a in all probability nod to the Black Lives Matter motion.

The dying of Lyoya led to protests concerning the brutality of the police and racial injustice in Grand Rapids. After the taking pictures, the GRPD has set a brand new coverage, together with de-escalation coaching and the emphasis on the ‘holiness of life’.

Please contact Arpan Lobo: alobo@freepress.com