Police officer shoots black man lying on the ground in the head


EOnce again, a deadly police operation in the USA causes a stir in which a black man died violently. Police in Grand Rapids, Michigan, released multiple videos Wednesday of the April 4 operation.

A white police officer stopped 26-year-old Patrick Lyoya in his car that day because of a license plate irregularity. 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.

Videos show the process

Police released several videos of the incident: from the officer’s body camera and the camera in his car, as well as from the surveillance camera of an adjacent house and the passenger’s cell phone camera.

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.

anger and pain

Grand Rapids Police Chief Eric Winstrom said the investigation is ongoing. 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. “The loss of a life is sad under any circumstance and I know it will have an impact on our city,” he said.

In the center of the city of 200,000, dozens of demonstrators gathered on Wednesday evening (local time) with banners that read “Black Lives Matter” (the lives of black people count). Some of the protesters shouted, “No justice, no peace.”

Not an isolated case

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 nationwide protests against police violence and racism.

When asked by a reporter if the Lyoya case is now Michigan’s version of the Floyd case, Winstrom referred to the ongoing investigation and simply said, “I see it as a tragedy.”



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