Testimony continues in the trial against officer who shot Patrick Lyoya

KENT COUNTY, Mich. (FOX 2) - The former Grand Rapids police officer charged with murder for killing Patrick Lyoya in 2022, returned to court Wednesday for day 3 of testimony. 

Timeline:

Moments after the prosecution rested its case, the defense requested to have the trial dismissed entirely.

This request was based on testimony from two out-of-state witnesses for the prosecution, who spoke about former Grand Rapids police officer Christopher Schurr’s use of force during his deadly confrontation with Patrick Lyoya.

The defense argued that their testimony was not relevant to the second-degree murder trial, but the judge disagreed.

"I don’t believe that their opinions or the fact that the jurors heard those opinions would rise to the level of prejudicing the defendant to the extent that I should declare a mistrial," said Judge Christina Mims.

Dig deeper:

Once the defense opened its case, they argued that Schurr, described as one of the most physically fit officers, had reached his limit during his struggle with Lyoya.

"Officer Schurr appeared to be out of breath. He was having trouble making any sort of comments toward us. He looked absolutely exhausted," said GRPD officer Sam Mott.

A forensics expert also documented the more than 30 commands Schurr gave Lyoya to de-escalate the situation before the shooting, including several commands to "stop."

The defense also called the GRPD captain in charge of training, who stated that officers must ultimately use their own discretion in situations like the one involving Schurr and Lyoya.

"They don’t have the luxury of having all the time in the world to come up with a tactical plan and have every asset and resource available before they initiate that plan," said Capt. David Siver. "They’ve got to make split-second decisions a lot of times under serious stress with a lack of information."

The backstory:

On April 4, 2022, Patrick Lyoya, 26, and a friend were driving in Grand Rapids when an officer pulled up behind them. Schurr, the only officer in his squad vehicle at the time, called a traffic stop in the area of Griggs Street and Nelson Avenue.

Schurr originally pulled Lyoya over for having improper vehicle registration. Lyoya had already been on probation at the time of the stop, which was for owning a license plate that was registered to a different vehicle than the one he was driving.

Lyoya ignored Schurr's orders when he exited his car. He later walked away from the officer, leading Schurr to try and grab him by the arm. Lyoya instead ran.

The altercation between Schurr and Lyoya eventually led to the officer chasing him, calling for backup, and ordering Lyoya to stop resisting several times. The two continued to wrestle, leading to Schurr pulling out a taser, which Lyoya pushed away.

The scene ended with Schurr on top of Lyoya, who was chest down on the ground. Schurr at times could be heard telling Lyoya to let go of his taser. Minutes later, Schurr drew his gun, presses it against the back of Lyoya's head, and shoots him.

The entire incident happened over 5 minutes, from 8:11 a.m. to 8:16 a.m.

Schurr was charged with second-degree murder for the fatal shooting.