GRAND RAPIDS, MI – Protesters wanted to send a message Wednesday to the Grand Rapids Police Department loud and clear: “Stop murdering us!”
It was one of many chants that filled the air outside of the police department Wednesday, April 13 – two hours after Grand Rapids Police Chief Eric Winstrom released footage of an officer fatally shooting a Black man, Patrick Lyoya after an April 4 traffic stop.
“Say his name!” a few hundred protesters shouted. “Patrick Lyoya!” others responded.
They demanded justice.
Lyoya, 26, was shot an killed by a white officer, who has not been named, around 8:11 a.m. at an intersection on the city’s Southeast Side. A cell phone video from a bystander shows the officer shoot Lyoya while is on the ground, struggling with the officer. Winstrom said the fatal shot was to the head during a Wednesday press conference at city hall.
In response, protesters first gathered around 5 p.m. downtown by Rosa Parks Circle before marching to police department. With them, they brought signs that read, “Justice for Patrick,” and donning T-shirts that said, “Black Lives Matters.”
“I had to hold back tears and save my rage for protesting,” one protester recalled the moment she saw the footage. “It’s just really difficult to watch. It makes my heart ache,” another protester added.As protesters began to arrive in large packs on Monroe Center, speakers used a megaphone and displayed their frustrations with police brutality not just in Grand Rapids, but “the entire country.”
For nearly an hour, they stood together wanting answers and demanding charges for the officer involved in the shooting.
Kent County prosecutors, in a statement released Wednesday, said no decision will be made on potential charges against the officer until a state police investigation is finished. The shooting is still being investigated by the Michigan State Police.
Around 6 p.m., protesters then marched a few blocks down Monroe Center towards the Grand Rapids Police Department, continuously shouting, “Name the killer cop.” They passed a few businesses that chose up to board up as a precaution ahead of the video being released.
“Name that murderer!” the growing number of protesters chanted outside the barricaded police department. Many raised their hands holding clenched firsts and some displaying the middle finger.
