GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — A national expert on police use of force, who testified for the prosecution in the George Floyd murder trial, said the shooting of Patrick Lyoya by a police officer grand rapids police should never have happened.
“I see many uses of force, many uses of fatal force. None of them are easy to see. This one certainly isn’t,” Professor Seth Stoughton said after viewing, at Target 8’s request, the videos released Wednesday by Grand Rapids police.
Stroughton, a professor at the University of South Carolina School of Law, said the officer’s first mistake was chasing Lyoya, who was unarmed, after the traffic stop in April 4. The officer was patrolling alone and had no backup.
However, he said, The videos they were not enough to show whether the shooting was justified or criminal.
“It raises some very significant red flags,” Stoughton said. “It is not in itself positive proof that the officer committed a crime; nor is it positive proof that the officer did not commit a crime. I would like more information besides this video.”
He watched dash cam video as the officer approached Lyoya after the traffic stop and as Lyoya ran off. Lyoya’s passenger eventually got out of the car and used his phone to capture video of the shooting.
“If a person in a car runs away, the officer just watches and waves goodbye, while taking care of the people in the car. Safety should always be a priority,” said Stoughton.
Police, he said, could have identified him and obtained a warrant for later.
“There is a strong possibility that officers could catch people later, even if they don’t actually catch them right now,” he said. “It is preferable to go slower and safer than to go faster and less safe.”
He watched video as the officer and man struggled.
“During the physical part of the encounter, the officer just doesn’t seem to know how to stop this person,” Stoughton said. “If the officer had been significantly better trained in physical restraint techniques, or had better employed physical restraint techniques, it seems at least plausible that he would not have used the Taser, drawn the Taser, lost control of the Taser, or used the Taser. firearm. .”
He questioned why the officer pulled out the taser when he did.
“Deploying the Taser at close range is not a good idea, because the guy can grab it. That’s exactly why you don’t do that,” Stoughton said.
He listened to the video as the officer repeatedly yelled at the man to drop his Taser.
“We should distinguish between poor decision-making, officer misconduct and criminal behavior. Just by watching this video, it would tell you at the very least what I would consider poor decision-making,” he said. “Whether it rises to the level of a crime requires more information than I was able to get from that video alone.”
The key, he said, was the Taser at the time of the shooting and whether it posed a death threat or great bodily harm to the officer. He had already been shot twice, hitting the ground.
“What were the capabilities of that Taser as a weapon? And what was the motorist, the driver, trying to do with that Taser? he said.
Stoughton testified for the prosecution in April 2021 in the murder trial of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin in the death of George Floyd on May 25, 2020. The death sparked national unrest.
Chauvin is serving 22 1/2 years in prison after his conviction on second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter charges.
Stoughton also testified for prosecutors in the trial of Brooklyn Center, Minnesota police officer Kim Potter, who shot and killed Daunte Wright in April 2021.
Potter, who apparently mistook her gun for a Taser, was sentenced to two years in prison after her involuntary manslaughter conviction.
Reference-www.woodtv.com