Press Conference: GRPD April 4 Officer-involved Shooting Video Release - April 13, 2022

LINK TO VIDEO https://youtu.be/03761SIb7Jk

Patrick Lyoya Videos show what led up to GRPD officer shooting

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Promising transparency and a thorough investigation, the Grand Rapids Police Department on Wednesday released video that shows an officer pulling over Patrick Lyoya and a long struggle between the two that ends with the officer shooting and killing Lyoya.

GRPD showed four videos at a press conference: from a dashboard camera, a body camera, a doorbell camera and a cellphone. News 8 is not using video showing the moment of death. You can watch the full GRPD press conference

The shooting happened the morning of April 4 on Nelson Avenue north of Griggs Street on the city’s Southeast side. The officer pulled Lyoya over around 8:11 a.m. after realizing that the plate on the car he was driving didn’t match the vehicle. GRPD has not said why the officer ran the plate.


A still from April 4, 2022 body cam footage. A GRPD officer shot and killed Patrick Lyoya. (Courtesy Grand Rapids Police Department)
Dashboard camera and body camera video shows that as soon as he stopped Lyoya, Lyoya got out of the car. The officer told him to get back in the car, but Lyoya didn’t. The officer asked him if he had a license. Lyoya seemed confused. The officer asked if he spoke English. Lyoya said he did. The officer asked again for his license. Lyoya asked what he had done wrong. The officer told Lyoya the plate didn’t match the car and repeated that he wanted to see his license. Lyoya opened the driver’s side door of the car and asked someone inside for his license. It’s unclear whether or not the passenger could find the license, but Lyoya closed the door without getting it.

When Lyoya stepped away, the officer tried to stop him. Lyoya then ran away and the officer gave chase, reporting that over his radio. A long struggle ensued in the front yards of houses, with the officer trying to hold Lyoya down but Lyoya repeatedly trying to get back up. After about 30 seconds, the officer called for more cars.

In the video, the officer is seen atop Lyoya, struggling to hold him down. The officer can be heard telling Lyoya to “stop” and “stop resisting.”

The officer drew his Taser. The bodycam video shows Lyoya grab for it as the sound of it deploying can be heard.


A still from body cam footage shows Patrick Lyoya and the officer struggling with the officer’s taser.

GRPD Chief Eric Winstrom said his understanding is that the Taser was deployed twice but did not actually make contact with Lyoya; both times were into the ground.

In the doorbell surveillance video, the officer can be heard repeatedly telling Lyoya to let go of the Taser.

The cellphone video shows the officer, still atop Lyoya and trying to hold him down, pull his gun. Once more, he tells Lyoya to let go of the Taser. Moments later, a single shot is fired.

The video shows the officer backing away from Lyoya and reporting the shooting over his radio.

In all, the video shows, it was about four and a half minutes between when Lyoya got out of the car and when the shot was fired. It was about one minute between when the Taser can first be heard deploying and when the shot was fired.

Winstrom said Lyoya was shot in the head. The chief noted he did not have the full autopsy report, which is not yet done.

GRPD says it has nine source videos, including four from the doorbell camera. Its release of video shorted some of those sources so as not to include the aftermath of the shooting, which the department said “was done to expedite their public release in the interest of transparency.”