A day after a video of an African refugee slain by a Michigan police officer during a traffic check was posted, the family of the African refugee urged that the officer be fired and criminal charges are filed against him.
Patrick Lyoya, a Congolese immigrant who is Black, was slain during a routine traffic check in a Grand Rapids area following a scuffle with the police over a stun gun. The officer's identity has not been revealed.
Lyoya's parents expressed their grief at the death of their first-born son during a news conference on Thursday, speaking via a translator and stating they did not believe this could happen in the United States.
"Seeing an officer on top breaks my heart." According to a statement from the governor's office, the family escaped turmoil in the Democratic Republic of Congo for the United States in 2014.
The officer did not follow basic training guidelines, according to Ben Crump, a famous US civil rights attorney who is representing the family, and the use of deadly force was needless and unacceptable.
He referred to the video footage as "another needless killing of a Black person in America by the same people who are meant to protect them." "You watch a cop turn a routine traffic stop into a murderous execution."