Grand Rapids, Michigan (AP) – A Michigan police officer who killed a man with a gunshot in the back of his head testified in his own defense on Friday, saying to the jurors during his trial for the second degree in the second degree he “ran on smoke” and feared for his life after losing his taser during an intense fight.
“I thought that if I hadn’t done it at that time, I was not going to go home,” said Christopher Schurr, who fired the only fatal blow as he pinned Patrick Lyoya Facedown in the field in order to master it.
Schurr, 34, wiped his eyes and sniff while the video of this day was played for the jurors. His testimony was his first public explanation for what happened following a stop of routine circulation during a cold and rainy spring morning in Grand Rapids in 2022.
The shooting amazed the public after the Grand Rapids police chief published a video of The Killing, who was recorded by a man who accompanied Lyoya that day. There were also videos and police car images of Schurr’s body camera.
Schurr told the jury that it was “important to get my side out of history.”
The jurors must decide if Schurr, who patrolled alone, would have reasonably feared that he could suffer large bodily injury or be killed after Lyoya has obtained control of her taser, a weapon that draws electrically loaded to master an attacker.
Lyoya, a black man, did not produce a driving license after Schurr stopped it To drive a car with an incompatible license plate. Then he ran, and the officer continued and approached him. As they fought physically for exhaustion for more than two minutes, Schurr was desperately heard asking the officers to rush to the scene.
“I run on smoke,” he told the jury.
Video shows The confrontation finally ended when Schurr pulled in Lyoya’s head after having repeatedly demanded that Lyoya stops resisting and abandoning the Taser, whose officer had lost control in the fight.
We don’t know why Lyoya was trying to flee. The files show that his driving license was revoked at the time and that there was an arrest warrant for him in a case of domestic violence, although Schurr did not know. An autopsy revealed that his blood alcohol level was three times above the legal limit of conduct, according to testimony.
During the counter-examination, the prosecutor Chris Becker tried to underline the inconsistencies between the testimony of Schurr and his declarations to the investigators three years ago, in particular his physical condition at the time.
Becker also noted that the officer was at the top of Lyoya before the fatal shot, suggesting that he had an advantage.
“He never said he was going to kill you, right? I never said he was going to hit you. I never said he was going to kick your buttocks or do something wrong,” said the prosecutor.
Schurr said earlier that he had a taser used on him during police training and knew it could cause “excruciating pain”.
“I shot him because I thought he was going to use it on me,” Schurr told Becker. “He started to go to me. I felt that if I didn’t answer at that time, I wouldn’t be there. ”
“Of course, but he is not there, that is to say?” Becker retaliated, referring to the death of Lyoya.
“No, it is not,” replied Schurr.
Outside the courthouse on Friday, a crowd agitated “thin blue line” flags in support of Schurr while standing along a lively street in the city center. Inside, his family and the relatives of Lyoya looked at the testimony.
Schurr was licensee By city officials to the recommendation of police chief Eric Winstrom after being charged in 2022. At the time, Winstrom said that his recommendation was based on the game video, the prosecutor’s examination of a state police investigation and Schurr’s interview with internal investigators.
The trial was above all an expert battle.
The experts in the use of the force testifying for the prosecutor said that the murderous force was not necessary to end the conflict. But several higher rapids’ superior officers, summoned by defense lawyers, said Schurr was at great risk when Lyoya obtained a Taser inmate.
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White reported Detroit.
