(Source: MIRS.news, Published 07/24/2024) An attorney told a federal appellate panel Wednesday that a former Grand Rapids officer charged with murder used permitted methods to subdue a suspect resisting arrest. 

Kali Henderson, an attorney with Seward Henderson who represents former officer Christopher Schurr, told the three-judge U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals panel that the officer “should have qualified immunity” in the lawsuit filed on behalf of Patrick Lyoya, who was fatally shot in the April 4, 2022, encounter. 

“I think there’s sufficient information based on the pleadings and video for this court to tell us: What did the law require of officers when their tasers have been stripped and they were facing the danger of that person turning on them,” Henderson said. 

Schurr’s actions, Henderson argued, “weren’t acts of aggression; they were methods he was permitted to use to control the suspect. Patrick Lyoya did not have the right to resist under any circumstances. … He was running away from a uniformed officer.” 

Christopher Desmond, an attorney with Ven Johnson Law who represents the Lyoya family, disagreed with Henderson’s characterization that Schurr punching, tackling and giving knee strikes against Lyoya as non-lethal force. 

“I view that as efforts to use aggression toward an individual who had not been aggressive toward Officer Schurr at all,” Desmond argued. “…  

Desmond said Lyoya tried to walk away when the “confusion started” and he tried to remove himself when the officer grabbed him, and that’s when Schurr did the knee strikes and punching. 

Circuit Judge John K. Bush asked what Schurr should have done “at the last encounter, obviously, before he shoots him.” 

Desmond replied: “At the moment of the shot … Officer Schurr is in a physically dominant position to Patrick Lyoya. … All the training indicated that at that moment he is supposed to create distance, take one or two steps back from my client.  

“And now, in that situation, Officer Schurr has a handgun drawn and ready. He can warn my client about the presence of the handgun, by the way, which never happened in this case,” he added. “. . . The other thing an officer can do is let Patrick go. And I know that can sound weird to law enforcement sometimes . . . It’s better to let him go than shoot him dead.” 

Schurr was charged with second-degree murder for shooting the 26-year-old victim in the back of the head at the end of a foot chase and physical struggle following a traffic stop in April 2022. 

Lyoya’s family filed a $100 million lawsuit in December 2022, accusing the city and Schurr of civil rights violations as well as negligence and willful misconduct. 

In August, U.S. District Judge Paul L. Maloney held Schurr wasn’t yet entitled to immunity.  

In addition to Bush, Senior Circuit Judge Eugene E. Siler Jr. heard the arguments Wednesday. Judge R. Guy Cole Jr. was not present on Wednesday, but will listen to the arguments later and participate in the decision. 

The criminal case is on hold while the case is pending before the Michigan Supreme Court.