GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — At 3 p.m. Wednesday, Grand Rapids Police released video of the altercation and fatal gunshot that killed 26-year-old Patrick Lyoya. The officer who fired the shot has not been named—which Police Chief Eric Winstrom says is because they have not been charged with a crime yet.
That video is certain to be pored over by a number of agencies, lawyers and the public as the case and investigation continue.
We spoke to Lewis Langham, a former MSP trooper and detective of 25 years and currently a professor of law with WMU's Cooley Law School, to break down the video piece by piece. Specifically, we wanted to look at the officer's use of force.
RELATED: What the Patrick Lyoya video shows
"You have to take things at the very beginning," Langham said. "I understand that maybe it's not wanting to be talked about why Patrick did what he did. We're talking about why the officer did what he did. And that's important, too. And obviously, it's important because he's fired a shot and killed a person. But there's a bigger picture, and we need to analyze it and go through all of it."
Throughout our conversation, Langham maintained that the officer was justified in their actions at each point of escalation.
"The officer got out of his vehicle, gave a lawful police order to get back in your vehicle. And Mr. Lyoya didn't comply with that, after being asked," Langham said, narrating the video. "So it was nothing inappropriate or wrong with what the officer did at that point."
As the interaction went on, the use of force escalated. The first use was verbal command and instruction. After that, it switched to a foot chase. Again, Langham believes the officer is acting in accordance to protocol.
"The officer had a right to attempt to detain him and possibly take him into custody. Because at this point, we still don't know if he had a driver's license," Langham said, "and that's an arrestable offense."
Even as the altercation escalates to the officer pulling out and firing their taser, Langham believes the use of force is within the bounds of state and city guidelines.
"It is definitely an escalation." Langham said. "Taking the taser itself does not necessarily justify a police officer using deadly force at that particular time, because even though the taser itself is not designed as a weapon to cause great bodily harm or even death."
The gray area, according to Langham, is the moment when the fatal shot is fired. As the officer is on top of Lyoya, Langham says the words exchanged by the two are important. That could contribute to the officer's perceived threat—or could prove the shot was excessive. Without having access to every piece of evidence, he's not willing to concretely say one way or the other.
"It's just obviously going to be a lot of circumstantial evidence that's going to come in and it's going to be determined at that point," Langham said. "It's a tough call for the prosecution. I'll say that it's not a slam dunk."
"If there's any excessive use of force determined in this particular case after the state police investigation, that will only take place at one point," Langham said later in the interview, "and that's when the officer is firing his weapon. Up until that point, there was nothing that that officer appeared to have done wrong."
You can watch the whole interview with Professor Langham here:
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