Patrick Loya, 26, was shot dead on April 4 by a white police officer who had stopped him because his car had the wrong license plates.
A police officer is accused of negligent homicide who killed a black man in April during a traffic control in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the state’s justice in the northern US announced on Thursday.
“The only heavier charge is intentional homicide and there is not enough evidence (to support, such as) intent or premeditated”Kent County Attorney Chris Becker told a news conference.
THE 26-year-old Patrick Liogia fell dead on April 4 from the bullets of a white police officer, who had stopped him because the car he was riding in had the wrong license plates.
According to the images released by the police and his passenger Liogia, the young man tried to leave on foot and resisted when the police officer tried to immobilize him. He then moved to grab his teaser and then Officer Christopher Surre pulled out his gun and threw a bullet in the neck of the young man.
Sur, who was made available after the incident, was arrested, the prosecutor clarified and is in danger of being sentenced to life.
The parents of the young man, who had fled to escape the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, had called for the police officer to be prosecuted, while in Grand Rapids there were demonstrations against police violence.
“We have to apply the law, either to the police or to the citizens”said Kent County Attorney.
The famous lawyer Ben Crump, who has represented many families of police victims as well as Loya, estimated that the decision of the prosecutor is “A critical step in the right direction”.
The policeman “He must be held accountable for deciding to chase Patrick, who was unarmed, and eventually killing him with a bullet in the neck, just for a traffic check.”stressed in a statement.
The name of Patrick Liogia was added to a long list of unarmed blacks who were killed by police fire. The death of George Floyd, an African-American man who suffocated below the knee of a white police officer in Minneapolis in May 2020, sparked a historic wave of anti-racism protests in the United States and elsewhere.
Derek Sauvin, the police officer responsible for his death Floydhas been sentenced to 22.5 years in prison for homicide.
