By Ed White
Associated Press
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A Michigan police officer who fatally shot a man after a traffic stop will not face a second murder trial, a prosecutor said Thursday, two weeks after a trial ended without a unanimous verdict.
Prosecutor Chris Becker said he doubted that a second jury would come up with a different result.
“I just don’t see a place where we get 12 people to agree. This has split the community,” he told reporters in Kent County, 160 miles (260 kilometers) west of Detroit. “I’ve heard over the last two weeks people passionately on both sides calling me, emailing me, advocating for and against a retrial. That didn’t play a role.”
Christopher Schurr, 34, who was a Grand Rapids Police officer, claimed self-defense, saying he feared for his life and shot Patrick Lyoya because the man had control of his TASER. He was charged with second-degree murder, though the jury also was allowed to consider a lesser charge of manslaughter.
Schurr’s attorney, Matt Borgula, said he believed a second trial would have resulted in another hung jury or an acquittal.
“I think everybody agrees that the death of Patrick Lyoya was a tragedy,” Borgula said. “The evidence showed, at least to this jury, that Officer Schurr’s actions were justified.”
The jury gave up on May 8, the fourth day of deliberations. The prosecutor said post-trial interviews showed as many as 10 of the 12 jurors wanted to acquit Schurr.
Lyoya’s death in April 2022 followed a physical struggle that lasted more than two minutes. Schurr had stopped a vehicle for an improper license plate. Lyoya exited the vehicle, did not provide a driver’s license and fled on foot.
Schurr was on top of Lyoya during the struggle when he fired his weapon. The encounter was captured on video, which shows the officer telling Lyoya to let go of the TASER and to comply with commands.
At trial, defense experts said the decision to use deadly force was justified because the exhausted officer could have been seriously injured if Lyoya had used the TASER, a powerful device designed to immobilize its target. The prosecutor’s experts, however, said Schurr could have simply let Lyoya run.
The Lyoya family’s attorney, Ven Johnson, said a desire to hold Schurr accountable in a second trial has been lost. Meanwhile, a lawsuit alleging excessive force is pending.
It’s not known why Lyoya tried to flee the traffic stop. Records show his driver’s license was revoked at the time and there was an arrest warrant for him in a domestic violence case, though Schurr didn’t know that. An autopsy revealed his blood-alcohol level was three times above the legal limit for driving.
Schurr, who was a Grand Rapids officer for seven years, was fired after he was charged in 2022.
