Below is a reprinted statement released by Detroit Will Breathe (DWB) on May 8, after a mistrial was announced in the cop killing of Patrick Lyoya. DWB is a group standing for abolition of police, prisons, and capitalism; and for the movement to be class-independent and based on stronger forms of self-organization that are led and controlled from below. Left Voice stands in solidarity with the statement and all the activists fighting for Justice for Patrick Lyoya.
On April 4, 2022, Grand Rapids Police Officer Christopher Schurr murdered Patrick Lyoya, an unarmed Black Man whom the officer had pinned to the ground, with a single execution-style gunshot to the back of the head. Patrick Lyoya was a refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo and father to two small children. This horrific racist police murder made national news, sparking widespread condemnation and protests and as a result of this political pressure from the Black Lives Matter movement, the GRPD fired Schurr and the Kent County Prosecutor charged him with second degree murder.
In the years since the murder, Grand Rapids Police harassed and brutalized protesters demanding justice for Patrick Lyoya, resulting in dozens of arrests and multiple felony prosecutions. Even during the trial GRPD went so far as to arrest protesters for littering and use smoke bombs and body armored police bike units to disperse protests. Meanwhile, GRPD has been hands off with aggressive pro Police demonstrators supporting Schurr.
On May 6, 2025 the jury in Schurr’s murder trial first informed Judge Christina Mims they were deadlocked and they were told to continue deliberating. On May 8, the jury informed Judge Christina Mims for a second time that they were deadlocked, and the Judge declared a mistrial. The facts of the case are clear. Patrick Lyoya was of no threat to the life of Christopher Schurr. The argument that Schurr was in fear of his life rests on a longstanding, racist trope about Black men being inherently dangerous. We demand that Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker not make any plea deals with Christopher Schurr or lower the charge, and retry the case.
The mistrial illustrates why we can’t rely on the courts to bring us justice, and why the movement in Grand Rapids was right to continue mobilizing. They, and Patrick Lyoya’s family, need our solidarity and continued support. Real justice for Patrick Lyoya would mean that he would still be here, and no conviction can reverse that, but a mistrial denies Patrick’s family and community the small measure of accountability our system makes available.
We stand in solidarity with Patrick’s family and organizers in Grand Rapids who fought for justice for Patrick. We fight for the prosecution of all police officers who brutalize or kill people to challenge the practice of impunity that the police enjoy. However, we cannot limit our demands to what is “achievable.” To achieve real liberation, we must fight for the abolition of the police, the carceral state, and the capitalist system that requires their violence to function. We need to bring this demand to the growing movement against Trump to ensure that it is a movement that can unite all struggles of the working class and oppressed.
Retry Killer Cop Christopher Schurr! Black Lives Matter! Justice for Patrick Lyoya!