Another case of racist police violence has occurred in the United States. Michigan police have released footage showing Patrick Lyoya being shot dead by a white police officer.
Once again, a deadly police operation in the USA, in which a black man died, caused a stir. Police in Grand Rapids, Michigan, released multiple videos Wednesday of the April 4 operation. A white police officer stopped 26-year-old Patrick Lyoya that day because of an irregularity in his car’s license plate. The two got into a physical altercation, ending with the officer shooting the man in the head from behind while he was on the ground.
The police have now made several videos of the incident public: from the police officer’s body camera and the camera in his car, as well as from the surveillance camera of an adjacent house and the cell phone camera of the passenger. The sequence of the scene can be seen on it: The policeman therefore first asked Lyoya for his driver’s license. After a brief conversation, the 26-year-old tried to move away. The officer ran after him and threw him to the ground in an adjacent front yard. A lengthy scuffle ensued, during which the officer initially used his taser, but Lyoya fought this off. In the end, while Lyoya was lying on the ground beneath him, the police officer drew his gun and shot him in the back of the head.
Investigations into the case are ongoing, Grand Rapids Police Chief Eric Winstrom said. The official is on leave until the end of the process. According to current knowledge, no weapon was found at Lyoya. City officials spoke of a “very regrettable event” that understandably triggers anger and pain.
In the United States, deadly police operations of a similar nature occur with sad regularity. The case of George Floyd is representative of this: In May 2020, the African American died in a brutal police operation in Minneapolis. Videos documented police officers pinning the unarmed man to the ground. White officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee on Floyd’s neck for a good nine minutes while Floyd begged him to breathe. The case led to international protests against police violence and racism.
When asked by a reporter if the Lyoya case was Michigan’s version of the Floyd case, Winstrom referred to the ongoing investigation and simply said, “I see it as a tragedy.”