Former Grand Rapids police officer Christopher Schurr shot resident Patrick Lyoya in the back of the head following a struggle during a traffic stop in April 2022. Two months later, the Kent County prosecutor charged Schurr with second degree murder, an unprecedented charge against a Grand Rapids officer. The city fired Schurr the following week.
For years, Schurr’s lawyers have been trying to get the second degree murder charge thrown out. But judges have repeatedly said the case should go to a jury. Second-degree murder charges are a felony offense, punishable up to life in prison with the possibility of parole. Schurr’s attorney has said the shooting was justified because Schurr was met with force during a lawful arrest.
But for Grand Rapidians it’s one of a pattern of instances of violence and bias against Black people and children in the city.
Three years after Lyoya’s death, the criminal case is heading to trial. Here's where to find what’s important to know about this case and the latest updates from our newsroom as it works its way through trial.
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Christopher Schurr’s attorneys asked for a mistrial when the prosecution rested their case today, saying two of the witnesses testified on accepted police practices that are irrelevant to Michigan law. They also asked the judge to issue her own verdict, saying no reasonable juror could find Schurr guilty. -
A pair of bills proposed by Sen. Jim Runestad and Rep. James DeSana grant people immunity from civil suits if they're cleared of criminal charges. -
The taser and its capabilities are a key point in the defense for former GRPD officer Christopher Schurr, who is on trial for second-degree murder. -
Jurors in a Grand Rapids courtroom heard from the first witnesses Monday in the long-awaited trial of a former police officer charged with murdering a man in 2022. -
The trial comes more than three years after the incident in which then-GRPD officer Christopher Schurr shot Patrick Lyoya in the back of the head. -
Christopher Schurr, a white former police officer, is accused of murdering a Black Congolese refugee in a traffic stop in 2022. -
Most potential jurors said they had some awareness of the incident in which a white GRPD officer shot a Black man in the back of the head. -
Former Grand Rapids police officer Christopher Schurr shot Patrick Lyoya in the back of the head following a struggle during a traffic stop in 2022. Schurr’s lawyers have been trying for years to get the second-degree murder charge thrown out. But judges have repeatedly said the case should go to a jury. -
Three years ago, Patrick Lyoya was shot and killed by former Grand Rapids Police Department officer Christopher Schurr. -
Lyoya’s killing shocked community members who had been arguing for years that GRPD officers routinely used force against minority suspects when it wasn’t necessary.
