The United States police released videos of an officer fatally shooting a 26-year-old Black man.
Police in Michigan, US, has released footage of an officer shooting a 26-year-old black man in the head. The shocking incident has roused calls to end police violence and brutality against Black people in the country.
The 26-year-old man identified as Patrick Lyoya was shot dead by the officer following a traffic stop on April 4. The incident happened outside a house in Grand Rapids (a city of about 200,000 residents that is 240km (150 miles) northwest of Detroit).
Footage from the incident shows that the officer had stopped him for driving with a license plate that did not belong to the vehicle. He is later seen running from the officer. Lyoya and the officer struggled in front of several homes while the passenger he was carrying got out and watched. The officer is heard ordering Lyoya to let go of his taser. He is heard saying, “drop the taser”.
Grand Rapids Police Chief Eric Winstrom shared that the fight lasted about 90 seconds. Toward the ending of the footage, the officer got on top of Lyoya, kneeling on his back to subdue him. Winstrom says the taser was deployed twice, but it did not make contact. He said, “From my view of the video, Taser was deployed twice. Taser did not make contact. And Mr Lyoya was shot in the head. However, that’s the only information that I have.”
Eric Winstrom released all videos from the shooting (including one recorded by Lyoya’s passenger), citing the need for more transparency.
