GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN (AP) – The Michigan police officer who shot Patrick Lioja in the head has been in the Grand Rapids department for seven years after playing the role of a pole vaulter in a small college and marrying his longtime girlfriend. during a church missionary trip to Africa.
Christopher Schur’s name has been circulating since his face appeared in videos of the April 4 clash with Lioya, a black man. But his identity was not publicly acknowledged until Monday, when the police chief changed course and released him, three days after the passionate request for the funeral of the 26-year-old Congolese.
Chief Eric Winstrom said he was acting “in the interests of transparency, to reduce ongoing speculation and to avoid further confusion”.
Lioya, who was unarmed, was on the ground when he was shot in the back of the head, moments after traffic was stopped in Michigan’s second-largest city. Shur was on top of him, and the video shows him insisting on removing his hand from the white officer’s taser.
A forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy at the family’s request said the gun was pressed against Lioja’s head when he was shot.
The Associated Press left a phone call on Monday, seeking comment from Shur, who lost his job while state police investigated the shooting. The AP contacted him several times in the past week, including knocking on the door of his suburban home. There was no answer.
Shur, 31, grew up in Byron Center, south of Grand Rapids, and joined the police force in 2015 after attending Siena Heights University in Adrian, Michigan, where he studied accounting and was a pole vaulter.
He won the NAIA National Championships in 17-foot-and-a-half vault clearance and, as a teenager, the University’s Athlete of Science Award, according to Sienna Height’s alumni magazine.
Shur was active in his church when he was younger, taking missionary trips to the Reformed Church of Corinth at the Byron Center, according to a 2014 story in Vaulter Magazine, a publication on sports.
Shur said he would get married the same year and could not afford to have a wedding and take a separate trip to Kisi, Kenya to build homes, so he decided to get married there.
“We will have a wedding in their style,” Shur told the magazine. “I already have an African costume and my fiancée will choose some fabric and make a Kenyan-style dress.”
A Twitter account with his name, which appears to belong to the officer, is followed by several national athletes, including pole vaulters. There are no tweets associated with the account. It looks like a Facebook page named Schurr has been removed.
College teammate Ryan Hopson said Shur was soft and quiet in college, friendly and quick with a smile.
“He was always in a good mood,” Hopson said. “I can’t say anything bad about him. I really can not. … I was shocked to see that he was, but I don’t know what it’s like to be a cop and risk my life. “
The decision of the police department to reveal Shur’s name was overturned. Following the release of a video of the shooting, Winstrom insisted he would keep the police officer’s name unless charged with a crime. This was described as a long-standing practice applicable to both the public and city officials.
But Lioja’s family and black leaders, including the Rev. Al Sharpton, have repeatedly insisted, including Lioja’s funeral, which drew 1,000 people on Friday.
“We want his name!” Sharpton shouted, saying authorities could not set a precedent for hiding the names of officers who kill people unless a police officer is charged.
Wen Johnson, the family’s lawyer, said it was important for Lioja’s parents to already know Shur’s name, although he scoffed at the police chief, citing “transparency”.
“It’s not transparent when you’re hiding something for three weeks. The opposite is true, “Johnson said. “The cops are taking care of the cops instead of treating it like a normal investigation.”
After Lioja’s funeral, Grand Rapids city manager Mark Washington confirmed the request for the officer’s name and said he would discuss the issue with Winstrom and city employment officials.
Grand Rapids, with a population of about 200,000, is located in western Michigan, 160 miles (257.5 kilometers) west of Detroit.
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Find the full AP coverage of Patrick Lyoya’s fatal police shooting: https://apnews.com/hub/patrick-lyoya
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Condon reported from New York. White reported from Detroit. AP reporter Corey Williams of West Bloomfield, Michigan, and AP researchers Ronda Schaffner and Randy Hershaft of New York also contributed.
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