Independent autopsy confirms Patrick Lyoya was shot in the head by Michigan cop
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Days after Michigan’s Grand Rapids Police Department released footage of how they fatally shot 26-year-old Patrick Lyoya, a Black man, an autopsy report related to the incident has confirmed that Lyoya was shot in the back of the head. According to Daily Kos, the department’s official autopsy report was expected to be released in 60 days as the medical examiner is awaiting toxicology and tissue test results. That will be shared with state police and will not immediately be released to the public.
However, lawyers with Lyoya’s family said Tuesday that an independent autopsy showed that he was fatally shot in the back of the head.
“There’s no question what killed this young man. … It was a powerful bullet,” Dr. Werner Spitz, a 95-year-old forensic pathologist and former medical examiner who performed the autopsy, said during a press briefing on Tuesday.
The autopsy confirms what was depicted in the video footage released last week. In it, an unidentified Michigan police officer is seen lying on Lyoya’s back before shooting him. “The only injury on this body was a typical bullet wound of entrance,” Spitz said.
According to CNN, the shooting was described by a representative of the family who saw it as “execution-style.” In the roughly 20-minute long video, Lyoya can be seen struggling with the officer who at one point tells him “stop resisting” as body camera footage shows him knee Lyoya.
Requests for the video followed protests across the state demanding justice and transparency for what happened to Lyoya. Lyoya, who was unarmed, was killed after a traffic stop in western Michigan on April 4 after being pulled over for having an unregistered license plate.
“This independent autopsy report confirms what we all witnessed in the horrifying video footage: Unarmed Patrick Lyoya was conscious until the bullet entered his head, instantly ending what could have been a long and fruitful life,” attorney for the family Ben Crump said, according to the Associated Press.
“My heart is broken to see an officer being on top of my son and to shoot him in the back of his head, my heart is really broken,” Peter Lyoya, Patrick’s father, said during a press conference last week, according to Reuters. “I’m asking for justice for Patrick.”
While Crump and the family are demanding “that the officer who killed Patrick not only be terminated for his use of excessive and fatal force, but be arrested and prosecuted for the violent killing of Patrick Lyoya,” police officials have said the name of the officer who shot and killed Lyoya will only be released if the officer is charged. As investigations continue, findings will be given to the Kent County prosecutor for consideration of any charges.
According to the AP, Lyoya’s funeral is planned for Friday at Renaissance Church of God in Christ in Grand Rapids. Costs are expected to be covered by Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network.