Killing of 26-year-ragged refugee in US remark of Michigan has reignited nationwide debate over racism and police violence.
Published On 10 Jun 2022
A police officer in the United States who fatally shot an unarmed Dark man in the course of a net site visitors stop in the remark of Michigan, setting off renewed protests and calls for an terminate to police violence, has pleaded now no longer guilty to 2d-diploma abolish.
Immense Rapids police officer Christopher Schurr, who turned himself in and is being held in a jail terminate to Kent County, looked at a hearing on Friday through video conference to respond to diverse largely procedural questions.
Immense Rapids Deem Nicholas Ayoub entered a now no longer-guilty plea on his behalf, in line with the Associated Press files agency.
Ayoub furthermore remark a $100,000 money bond for the officer, who killed Patrick Lyoya, a 26-year-ragged refugee from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in the course of an altercation that adopted a net site visitors stop in Immense Rapids on April 4.
Schurr was as soon as charged with 2d-diploma abolish on Thursday and might maybe presumably well presumably face a sentence of life in jail if convicted. Kent County prosecutor Chris Becker said the killing was as soon as now no longer “justified or excused, for example, by self-defence”.
Lyoya was as soon as unarmed and laying face-down on the ground when he was as soon as shot in the head, spurring favorite condemnation and calls from members of his family and the native Dark community for Schurr to be fired and face prison prices.
US civil rights lawyer Ben Crump, who’s representing the Lyoya family, beforehand known as the killing “an execution”.
Schurr’s defence attorneys maintain described the shooting as an “depressed tragedy” nonetheless denied wrongdoing, arguing that the officer feared for his security, a frequent defence ragged by law enforcement officers accused of lethal utilize of power.
The Associated Press reported that Schurr has no old accusations of excessive power.
Immense Rapids police chief Eric Winstrom released footage of the shooting on April 13, and has instructed that Schurr be fired. The footage showed Lyoya running away from his automobile and struggling with Schurr over a taser.
The killing has reignited a nationwide debate over police shootings of unarmed Dark males, which maintain resulted in most important nationwide protests and calls to confront the US’s history of structural racism in areas such as law enforcement and prison justice.
The 2020 police killing of George Floyd, the most high-profile case in latest years, drove most important protests across the nation and spurred calls for police accountability.
In April of last year, a jury learned officer Derek Chauvin guilty of murdering Floyd, an unarmed Dark man who was as soon as killed after the Minneapolis policeman kneeled on his neck for bigger than nine minutes.
But despite the demonstrations, police violence in the US has shown dinky signal of slowing down.
Last year was as soon as one of many deadliest on account for police violence, with 1,136 individuals killed by police in the US, in line with Policeviolencereport.org, a net net net site that independently tracks such killings.
Provide
:
Al Jazeera and files companies