On April 4, Grand Rapids law enforcement pulled Patrick Lyoya, 26, over because of suspected improper license plate registration, police said, before the two engaged in a lengthy struggle and Lyoya was shot.
The video police released on Thursday - consisting of body-cam, dash-cam. and cell phone footage - shows the officer involved with his arms around Lyoya before they grappled on the ground. During the struggle, the policeman repeatedly tells Lyoya to let go of the officer's Taser.
The officer then got on top of the man's back and pulled his handgun out. The officer told Lyoya once again to let go of his department-issued stun gun before shooting him in the back of the head.
The exchange initially became heated because Lyoya refused to stay in his car as ordered by the officer. Video shows the officer asking for his driver's license as Lyoya repeatedly asks "what for?" The policeman subsequently responds by telling him that "the plate does not belong on this car."
As the person in the passenger seat looks for his driver's license, Lyoya begins walking away and then tries to run before the officer begins grappling with him on the front lawn of someone's lawn. The officer is repeatedly heard saying "get your hands behind your back."
At a presser later in the day, Police Chief Eric Winstrom said the unnamed officer will not be identified publicly unless there are criminal charges, according to CNN. He will be put on paid leave with police powers suspended.
Civil Rights attorney Benjamin Crump, who has been retained by the Lyoya family, after the video was released demanded that the Grand Rapids Police Chief arrest and prosecute the officer involved for killing an unarmed Black man over a "misdemeanor traffic stop."
"The video clearly shows that this was an unnecessary, excessive, and fatal use of force against an unarmed Black man who was confused by the encounter and terrified for his life," Crump said in a statement. "We demand that the officer who killed Patrick not only be terminated for his use of excessive and fatal force, but be arrested and prosecuted for the violent killing of Patrick Lyoya."
Lyoya’s father Peter, and other relatives, described Patrick Lyoya’s death as "execution style," as quoted by NBC.