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Patrick Lyoya shooting: Grand Rapids officer charged with second-degree murder in shooting of Patrick Lyoya, prosecutor says

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Lyoya, a Black man, was shot to death on April 4 by officer Christopher Schurr, a White officer trying to arrest him after a traffic stop in a case that has drawn national attention. Lyoya’s final moments were captured in multiple videos later released to the public.

“This is not a message. This is just based on the facts and making a decision in this case,” Kent County Prosecuting Attorney Christopher Becker told reporters Thursday, referring to the charge.

Becker said he had spoken with Lyoya’s family and had sent them a letter in their native Swahili.

Ben Crump, an attorney for the Lyoya family, in a statement called the decision to file charges “a step in the right deirection.”

“We are encouraged by attorney Christopher Becker’s decision to charge Christopher Schurr for the brutal killing of Patrick Lyoya, which we all witnessed when the video footage was released to the public,” Crump said.

“Officer Schurr,” he added, “must be held accountable for his decision to pursue an unarmed Patrick, ultimately shooting him in the back of the head and killing him — for nothing more than a traffic stop.”

In a statement, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel commended Becker and the state police for “the exhaustive review conducted these last two months.”

“We must now respect the judicial process and allow the facts of the case to be presented in court,” he added.

Becker said Schurr has turned himself in and will likely be arraigned Friday.

Becker, responding to a question about the timing of the criminal charge, said he received the investigative report from the state police about eight days ago.

“Things take time, and I want to be, obviously, thorough. This is a major decision,” he said.

Becker stressed that prosecutors are not a branch of the police department. We work a lot with them, but we don’t work for them,” he said.

Schurr placed on leave and suspended after shooting

In May, Becker announced he was seeking guidance from outside experts before deciding whether to charge the officer. The city of Grand Rapids placed the officer on paid leave and suspended his police powers after the shooting.

Lyoya, 26, was pulled over by Schurr for an allegedly unregistered license plate. Lyoya got out of the car and ran. He resisted Schurr’s attempt to arrest him, and the officer shot him while the two were on the ground as Schurr wrestled for control of Lyoya.

Lyoya had three outstanding warrants at the time he fled Schurr, and an autopsy revealed his blood-alcohol concentration was more than three times the legal limit.

The death led to protests in Grand Rapids, where other interactions between police and residents drew media scrutiny in a city with a history of tension between Black residents and police.

The shooting led the state’s civil rights agency to renew a request for a pattern-and-practice investigation by the Justice Department into the Grand Rapids Police Department, just one month after a new police chief took office.

The county’s medical examiner’s office released its autopsy results in early May, and the Grand Rapids Police Department released dispatch records and reports written by officers who responded to the shooting in late April.

The radio traffic, an accompanying computer-aided dispatch log and redacted incident reports shed some light on the moments before and after the officer shot Lyoya.

Radio traffic and other records released by the Grand Rapids Police Department show that Schurr told supervisors after the shooting that Lyoya “has my Taser.”

Schurr notified his dispatcher he stopped a tan car around 8:11 a.m. He told the dispatcher that one person was running from the stop about 75 seconds later and asked for more officers to respond about two minutes after the stop. Schurr told the dispatcher that he had been “involved in a shooting” about four minutes after the initial stop. The dispatcher said emergency medical services were en route about 11 seconds after that.

Lyoya was driving on a revoked license at the time of the traffic stop. His license was revoked in March because of a third substance abuse conviction in 10 years, according to public records. He had three open warrants at the time of the traffic stop, according to a CNN review of state records.

It’s not clear if Schurr knew of the warrants or the revoked license at the time Lyoya fled.

Lyoya fled on foot shortly after the stop. Records show he was wanted in connection with a domestic violence case from April, charged as a second offense. Another warrant was issued in early April for failure to appear or pay. Another open warrant appeared in the court record relating to a property damage traffic crash Lyoya’s alleged to have fled. His family’s attorneys declined to comment on the open warrants.

Becker’s review of the shooting is separate from the police department’s review of Schurr’s conduct. A police department review could result in a far wider review of Schurr and whether he broke department policies leading up to, during, and after the shooting, and look at other officers and policies that may have contributed to the shooting. The city has also promised to review its policies related to shootings by officers.

CNN’s Laura Ly, Virginia Langmaid, Pervaiz Shallwani, Samantha Beech, Rob Frehse, Jennifer Henderson, Omar Jimenez, Artemis Moshtaghian, Kristina Sgueglia, Amy Simonson, Laura Studley and Kiely Westhoff contributed to this report.

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Oxford High School: Michigan shooting could have been prevented, prosecutor says

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“I’m certainly not suggesting that parents should be criminally prosecuted for any bad act of a child,” McDonald told CNN’s Brianna Keilar. “But in this case, you can’t possibly look at their actions and say that they didn’t have reason to believe that there was real concern about a violent act.”

Ethan Crumbley, 15, is accused of fatally shooting four classmates and wounding several others on November 30. His parents were charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter in the same incident. All three have pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors allege that James Crumbley, the father of the suspected shooter, bought the gun used in the shooting four days earlier. His mother, Jennifer, posted about the gun on social media, calling it “his new Christmas present.”
“All of this could have been prevented if he hadn’t had access (to a gun) or if just one of those parents had said, ‘I’m concerned about what I’m seeing right now and I also want you to know we just bought him a gun for Christmas,’ and that didn’t happen,” McDonald said, adding that the evidence against them is “just really hard to stomach.”
These are red flags students and schools can look our for to help prevent school shootings
Crumbley had a meeting with school officials and his parents on Tuesday after a teacher was concerned over violent statements and drawings he made. After being instructed to find counseling within 48 hours and allowed to return to class, he began shooting others in between class periods.
Prosecutors say it is likely the firearm was in his backpack during the meeting, and the school had legal grounds to search his bag and locker.

The four students who were killed: Madisyn Baldwin, 17; Tate Myre, 16; Hana St. Juliana, 14; and Justin Shilling, 17. Six other students and a teacher were wounded by gunfire.

Warning signs were missed

Casey Smith, whose daughter is a student at Oxford High and was standing in the hallway near where the shooting started, told CNN’s Erin Burnett on Monday that he and others find it “incredibly frustrating” that multiple warning signs in the days and hours leading up to the shooting were missed.

“Clearly something should have been done, and there was the opportunity to do something that could have prevented this horrific tragedy,” he said.

But spotting red flags can sometimes be a challenge for schools, Chris Dorn, senior analyst at non-profit campus safety organization Safe Havens International told CNN on Monday, because “educators aren’t designed to look for the danger, to look for the next active shooter. Their job is to educate and nurture kids.”

Smith hailed “the courageousness of these kids in this community,” saying that his daughter and friends are hoping to return to school.

“It just speaks to their character. That’s amazing to me,” he said. “We just have to — as parents and a community and as a state — not just make them feel safe, but ensure that they’re safe now so they can do that.”

In a Sunday letter to the school community, Oxford Community Schools superintendent Tim Throne said a reopening plan for the district includes a “soft opening” with a law enforcement presence as well as trained clinicians to support students and staff.

Elementary schools and a few select programs will return Friday for a half-day and December 13 for full days.

He added that it will be “quite sometime before the high school is ready to serve as an educational setting again.”

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel told CNN’s Don Lemon on Monday that state officials had offered to conduct a full review of the events that led up to the shooting, and that she was “disappointed quite honestly” that the school district will go with a private security firm instead.
On Saturday, Throne told families the district had asked for an “independent security consultant” to review all district safety practices and procedures.

“Obviously, we hope the school district cares as much about the safety of their students as they do shielding themselves from civil liability,” Nessel said. “We’re going to talk to the parents and students in Oxford and see what it is they want to see happen, and I’m sure they will make their feelings known about the rejection of our offer.”

CNN has reached out to Oxford Community Schools for comment.

As the investigation into the timeline of events continues, the Crumbleys are being held at the Oakland County Jail.

But because the accused shooter is a juvenile and in a different part of the facility, he would have no possible interactions with his incarcerated parents, Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard told CNN’s Michael Smerconish.

Male and female populations are also separated, Bouchard said.

Crumbley is aware that his parents are in custody, according to Paulette Michel Loftin, Crumbley’s court-appointed attorney.

Ethan Crumbley’s next court date is December 13 and will occur over Zoom, Loftin said. This court proceeding will set a date for Crumbley’s next court appearance and preliminary examination, during which prosecutors are expected to give even more evidence and the judge will decide to go forward with the trial.

Search warrant issued following arrest of Crumbleys

Meanwhile, a search warrant was executed Monday at the home of a man who may have helped James and Jennifer Crumbley before their arrest, as the pair were later found in his workspace.
The parents were due to attend an arraignment Friday to face charges, yet their failure to appear made them fugitives and led authorities on a manhunt for the couple. The pair were found in an industrial building in nearby Detroit early the next day after police received a tip that their vehicle was nearby.

Authorities seized “several digital devices” from the home of Andrzej Sikora, according to the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office.

Sikora is being cooperative, Oakland County Undersheriff Michael G. McCabe told CNN. He and his attorney, Clarence Dass, voluntarily went into the sheriff’s office Monday where Sikora was interviewed for 90 minutes.

“Mr. Sikora fully cooperated and answered all of law enforcement’s questions,” a statement from Dass said. “Mr. Sikora did not assist the Crumbleys in evading law enforcement, did not know there was a warrant for their arrest, and did not know they were at his art studio at the time of their arrest. He has not been charged with any crime, and will continue to assist members law enforcement in their pursuit of justice.”

Dass told CNN on Sunday his client knew the Crumbleys were using his workspace, but he “did not really know what was going on” and didn’t know the couple “had active warrants” when they were discovered and subsequently arrested, adding that Sikora “got roped into it.”

A statement from the sheriff’s office said the warrant was executed “immediately after questioning,” and the main issue for investigators “is what did Sikora know and when did he know it.”

CNN’s Sonia Moghe, Carolyn Sung, Mark Morales, Artemis Moshtaghian, Kiely Westhoff, Tina Burnside, Amir Vera, Ralph Ellis, Satyam Kaswala and Zachary Slater contributed to this report.



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Oxford High School shooting: Parents of the Michigan high school shooting suspect are charged with crimes tied to deadly rampage, prosecutor says

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“It’s been a devastating week for us,” Oakland County District Attorney Karen McDonald said at a press conference. “There are other individuals who contributed … and it’s my intention to hold them accountable as well.”

In this rare instance of charging parents, prosecutors will try to prove that James and Jennifer Crumbley were criminally negligent and contributed to a dangerous situation that resulted in the deaths of four teenagers Tuesday.

McDonald said James Crumbley bought the gun four days before it was used in the shooting. His son, sophomore Ethan Crumbley, 15, was with him and later posted on social media about the gun, calling it “my new beauty.”

Jennifer Crumbley also posted about the gun on social media, calling it “his new Christmas present,” McDonald said.

Those are among the chain of events that led up to the shooting, McDonald said.

Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said the boy could not legally own the gun or carry it to most places — with rare exceptions such as shooting ranges.

Ethan Crumbley has been charged as an adult with terrorism, murder and other counts in the rampage north of Detroit that also left seven people wounded. The shooting was the deadliest at a US K-12 campus since 2018 and the 32nd such attack since August 1.

His parents are expected to be arraigned at 4 p.m. Friday on four counts of involuntary manslaughter.

Lt. Tim Willis, head of the special investigations unit at the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office, said that officers were planning to arrest the parents.

Addressing reporters, McDonald said she was charging the parents in part to make a point about the responsibility of gun ownership, but that the facts of the case were egregious on their own.

“I’m angry as a mother. I’m angry as the prosecutor. I’m angry as a person that lives in this county,” she said. “There were a lot of things that could have been so simple to prevent and, yes, there was a perfectly executed response, and he was apprehended immediately and we have great law enforcement and good training.

“But as I said before, four kids were murdered, and then seven more injured, so, yes, I think we should all be very angry.”

Prosecutor outlines a chilling progression of events

McDonald said a teacher saw Ethan Crumbley searching ammunition on his cell phone during class the day before the shooting and reported it to school officials. The school contacted Jennifer Crumbley via voicemail. Officials also sent an email but received no response from either parent, McDonald said.

“Jennifer Crumbley exchanged text messages about the incident with her son on that day, stating, quote, ‘LOL, I’m not mad at you. You have to learn not to get caught.’ End quote,” McDonald said.

The day of the shooting, a teacher found a note on Ethan Crumbley’s desk that alarmed her so much she took a picture of it on her phone, McDonald said. The note included a drawing of a semiautomatic handgun pointing at the words, “The thoughts won’t stop. Help me,” she said.

Another section was a drawing of a bullet with the words “Blood Everywhere” written above it. Between the drawing of the gun and the bullet is one of a person who seems to have been shot twice and is bleeding, McDonald said.

“Below that figure is a drawing of a laughing emoji,” McDonald said.

Also found on the note, according to McDonald: “My life is useless” and “The world is dead.”

James and Jennifer Crumbley were “immediately summoned to the school,” McDonald said. A counselor met with the parents and the boy, who had altered the drawing by scratching out the drawings of the gun and bloody figure, along with the words, according to McDonald.

The parents were told to get their son into counseling within 48 hours, McDonald said. Neither parent asked their son to see the gun or “inspect his backpack for the presence of the gun which he had with him,” according to McDonald.

The parents left school and the boy was sent back to class.

When news broke about the shooting, according to McDonald, Jennifer Crumbley sent her son a text: “Ethan, don’t do it.” James Crumbley called 911 to report a gun was missing and his son might be the shooter.

McDonald said investigators found that the gun used in the shooting had been stored unlocked in a drawer in the couple’s bedroom.

School officials: No disciplinary action was needed.

When the meeting was held before the shooting, no disciplinary action was warranted, the school district superintendent said Thursday.

“No discipline was warranted. There are no discipline records at the high school,” Tim Throne, the superintendent of the Oxford Community Schools, said Thursday in a video statement. “Yes, this student did have contact with our front office. And yes, his parents were on campus November 30th.”

There is a “strong possibility” Crumbley had the gun he allegedly used in the shooting in his backpack during the meeting, McDonald told CNN Thursday night.

The school’s video surveillance cameras will let investigators “really map out exactly and literally watch what the perpetrator did” from that meeting through the shooting and being taken into custody, Bouchard, the Oakland County sheriff, told CNN on Friday morning.

The shooter had the gun “on his person or in his backpack or somehow secreted” it away from a school location, he said.

Another warning sign had come Monday — the day before the shooting — when a different teacher “saw and heard something that she felt was disturbing” related to Crumbley’s conduct in the classroom, Bouchard said. School officials held a counseling session with Crumbley about the behavior in question, and his parents were notified by phone, Bouchard added.

Crumbley’s defense attorney asked the court Wednesday to enter a not guilty plea on his client’s behalf. CNN has attempted to reach Crumbley’s parents and is trying to identify their attorney and a new attorney for their son.

School is like a ‘war zone,’ superintendent says

Two days after the deadly attack, Oxford High School is “like a war zone,” Throne told his community from the school in the 13-minute video posted on YouTube.

“This high school is a wreck right now,” he said, adding repairs could take weeks.

The shooting claimed the lives of Madisyn Baldwin, 17; Tate Myre, 16; Hana St. Juliana, 14; and Justin Shilling, 17, officials have said.

Throne commended students and staff for how they handled an active shooter threat, during which some administrators performed CPR and students used desks and chairs to barricade themselves inside classrooms for protection.

More than 100 calls to 911 were made to report the shooting as police rushed to the school at 12:52 p.m. local time, Bouchard said. Within “two to three minutes” of officers’ arrival, the shooter had surrendered.

“I believe they literally saved lives, having taken down the suspect with a loaded firearm still in the building,” the sheriff said.

CNN’s Mark Morales, Sonia Moghe, Carolyn Sung, Sahar Akbarzai, Taylor Romine, Shimon Prokupecz, Kristina Sgueglia and Adrienne Broaddus contributed to this report.

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Italian ambassador died in gun battle in DRC, not execution, prosecutor says

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Italian ambassador Luca Attanasio and Italian carabiniere, or paramilitary police officer, Vittorio Iacovacci, died on Monday after their car was attacked as they traveled in a UN convoy in the eastern part of the Central African country. A third man, Congolese driver Moustapha Milambo, was also killed.

The bodies of the two Italian men arrived at Rome’s Ciampino Airport overnight Tuesday into Wednesday, and were met by Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi. The Italian Foreign Minister, Luigi Di Maio, said Wednesday the country had sent a team to eastern DRC to investigate the incident.

“At the moment all the facts aren’t clear,” said Pioletti. “We still are examining, we are dealing with an area where there are different armed groups, different ethnicities, so we cannot attribute this attack to one of these groups, it is still too early.

“What we know for certain is that it was not an execution, it was a gun fight, the ambassador and the carabiniere were hit by two bullets each,” added Pioletti following autopsies on the two men completed on Wednesday.

The World Food Programme (WFP) said in a statement that Milambo also died in the attack. Four other WFP staff who were in the group are safe and accounted for, according to the UN agency.

An armed group stopped the convoy and forced the passengers to disembark before an exchange of gunfire, said the WFP.

Iacovacci died after a bullet struck him near his heart while Attanasio was shot twice in the abdomen, said Pioletti. Attanasio died on the way to the hospital, which was 50 minutes away.

It is not yet clear whether the bullets that killed the Italians were fired by the attackers or the government military defending them, added Pioletti.

The route was on a road previously designated safe for travel without a security team, according to the WFP.

Rutshuru is just over two hours’ drive from Goma. The road out of the regional capital has been insecure for years with a variety of armed groups operating in the area.

There is a heavy UN peacekeeping presence in the region, and UN convoys need security clearance to travel outside of Goma.

With the identity of the attackers still unknown, the motive for the attack is uncertain. A political motive has not been fully ruled out, said Pioletti, but he added that a kidnapping was more likely.

CNN’s David McKenzie, Nicola Ruotolo and Ingrid Formanek contributed to this report.

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Woman seen directing rioters with megaphone had ‘go bags,’ smashed cell phones and firearms paraphernalia at home, prosecutor says

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The Justice Department detailed the investigators’ findings in a new request to keep the woman, Rachel Powell, in jail before her trial. A federal magistrate judge in Pennsylvania previously decided to release her shortly after her arrest, but federal prosecutors have appealed that ruling to the federal district court for the District of Columbia where Powell is being prosecuted, saying that she is both a “danger to the community and a flight risk.”

Powell, of Sandy Lake, Pennsylvania, has been charged with obstruction, depredation of government property, entering a restricted building or grounds with a dangerous weapon, entering a restricted building or grounds, and violent entry or disorderly conduct. She admitted in an interview with the New Yorker that she was present at the riot, and used a megaphone to direct rioters trying to reenter the Capitol building.

When agents searched Powell’s home, prosecutors write that they found, “several smashed cell phones,” in addition to “firearms paraphernalia.” They also found what prosecutors said, “law enforcement described as ‘go bags’ because they appeared to be prepacked for a forthcoming departure.”

Prosecutors submitted photos to the court, which were obtained by CNN affiliate WTAE, that showed what agents found at the home. The photos show what prosecutors say they found inside the “go bags,” including throwing knives and survival gear like tape, lighters and tarps.

Investigators also say they found what appear to be used shooting targets with messages written on them: “Guns don’t kill people. I do.”; “Better shot than my ex.”; “Prayer is a good way to meet the lord but trespassing is faster!”

On February 4, CNN and other outlets reported that the FBI had searched her house, but were still searching for Powell. Prosecutors acknowledge that, saying it took 11 hours to detain her despite them informing Powell’s defense attorney, Michael Engle, at 7 a.m. on February 4 of the warrants.

“Midday, (Engle) told law enforcement that the defendant was near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, but would not give a precise location,” prosecutors said.

When she was arrested, Powell did not have her cell phone; Engle, prosecutors say, said at the detention hearing that, “she may have been instructed not to bring it with her.”

CNN reached out to Engle about the appeal but has not yet received a response.

Prosecutors note that Powell is a mother of eight; two of them are adults and she shares custody of the remaining six — ages 4 to 17 — with her ex-husband. They allege that Powell, “left the children at home, unattended,” on January 6.

On January 30, the day before the New Yorker article was published, prosecutors say she “dropped off the children at her ex-husband’s house with no explanation and no indication of when she would return.” Prosecutors say that the ex-husband is seeking full custody of the children.

US Attorney’s spokesperson Margaret Philbin confirmed to CNN that Powell remains detained ahead of a court hearing today in the District of Columbia, where a judge will decide on the prosecutor’s appeal.

CNN’s Patrick Cornell contributed to this report.

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