Washington.- Dozens of protesters took to the streets of Grand Rapids, Michigan on Wednesday night after videos were made public showing the death of a young African descent at the hands of a white police officer.
One of four videos recorded on April 4 shows a police officer lying on the back of 26-year-old Patrick Lyoya before allegedly shooting him in the head.
Shortly before the shot, the agent and Lyoya are seen struggling on the ground to gain control of the stun gun from the agent, whose name has not been revealed.
According to the images of the local station ABC, several dozen protesters had gathered in the center of Grand Rapids, a city in the state of Michigan of about 200,000 inhabitants.
Protesters carried “Black Lives Matter” banners and chanted “no justice, no peace.”
“I consider it a tragedy,” Grand Rapids Police Chief Eric Winstrom said of the April 4 event at Wednesday’s news conference at which the videos were released.
“The loss of a life, regardless of the circumstances, is sad, and I know it will have an impact on our city,” he added.
American society has been shaken in recent years by the deaths of African descent at the hands of police officers. The most notorious was that of George Floyd, who died in 2020 after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck.
Images of Floyd’s death, face down and after repeatedly saying he couldn’t breathe, shocked the world.
His name became an emblem of the Black Lives Matter movement during the great anti-racist protests of 2020.
The Grand Rapids police officer has been placed on paid leave pending the outcome of the Michigan State Police investigation, Winstrom said.
