The US police officer who shot a black man after a fight at a traffic control in Michigan was charged with murder, the US attorney general’s office said on Thursday.
According to Kent County prosecutor Christopher Becker, Christopher Schurr, a white police officer from the city of Grand Rapids, faces a single charge of second-degree murder when the crime was not premeditated, and is serving the maximum life sentence. .
“We have a duty to enforce the law, whether by the police or the public,” Becker said. Said.
Patrick Lyoya, 26, died on April 4 during a traffic stop in Grand Rapids.
Police released four videos of the incident, one of which shows Schurr hovering over Lyoya at a wrestling match and apparently then shot the victim in the head.
The incident sparked protests in Grand Rapids, a city of nearly 200,000 people, calling for the relevant official to be brought to justice.
Renowned civil rights attorney Ben Crump congratulated Schurr on his decision to charge him with second-degree murder.
“While the road to justice for Patrick and his family has only just begun, this decision is a very important step in the right direction,” Crump said.
“Officer Schurr should be held accountable for his decision to follow unarmed Patrick and then shoot him in the back of the head and kill him for nothing more than traffic control,” he added.
Lyoya’s murder was the latest in a series of recent events in the United States involving the police killing of black people, sparking widespread protests against racism and calls for reform.
The case of George Floyd, who was strangled to death after kneeling on the neck of a white police officer during an approach in Minneapolis in May 2020, triggered a historic wave of protests against racism in the United States and the rest of the world.
Derek Chauvin, the police officer involved in Floyd’s death, was sentenced to 22 and a half years in prison in 2021.
source: Noticias
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