“It’s a deadly force encounter to grab an officers’ weapon is the gravest threat.”
Testifying in the 2nd degree murder trial former Grand Rapids police officer Christopher Schurr, Captain David Siver says before Officer Schurr shot and killed Patrick Lyoya, body, dash and cell phone video show Lyoya holding the policeman’s taser and rising to possibly use it.
“Chances are it is going to be used against you.”
And the captain thinks most officers would do what Schurr did.
“I do. I thought it was reasonable. That a reasonable officer could perform the same way in that situation.”
Three years ago, at about eight in the morning, former officer Schurr pulled over the car Lyoya was driving because the license plate belonged to another vehicle. Lyoya didn’t produce a driver’s license, pushed away from Officer Schurr and tried to run. As the captain says he is trained to do, Schurr chased and caught him, and the men wrestled for control of the officer’s taser.
“Once someone is under arrest do you train GRPD officers that they can just let them go?”
“No.”
“Why not? Because there is an inherent risk to the community. We have had numerous cases of people fleeing into other people’s homes. It is school time of the morning. It is just a risk to the community. We train people to chase and effect an arrest.”
