LANSING, Mich. — In Lansing on Wednesday afternoon, a group of demonstrators went to the State Capitol, calling for the officer who shot and killed Patrick Lyoya to be arrested and prosecuted.
The event was organized by Black Lives Matter Michigan and began with a mile long march to the Capitol building. There, several speakers rallied the crowd, demanding justice for Patrick Lyoya.
"It doesn't even matter the color of your skin, just seeing the support that Black lives actually do matter is really important to me," says Kelsey Abner, a student at Michigan State University who attended the rally.
And that support is exactly what people brought to the streets of Lansing.
Support for Patrick Lyoya's grieving family, who fled Congo because of violence.
"We ran away from there because I know there was violence, killing, war," Patrick's mother, Dorcas Lyoya, said through a translator. "But I'm so surprised to see this is where I came to lose my son."
Violence they believed they would never see again.
"We thought when we came to America we would be saving our lives," said Peter Lyoya, Patrick's father, through a translator.
And beyond Patrick, there was support for the Black community as a whole.
"We refuse to give an officer the right to kill you because you didn't instantly comply," says Kent County commissioner Robert S. Womack.
With encouragement to keep fighting outside of rallies like this one.
"While the physical shackles are gone, the mental shackles are still present," says Chandler Stinson, another MSU student at the rally.
Because they say support is always needed.
"Voices are starting to die down. Unfortunately that is a true fact," says Stinson. "But we still have to come out and support."
Other speakers at the event included Melina Abdullah, co-founder of the Black Lives Matter Los Angeles chapter, and the Lyoya family's translator, Pastor Israel Siku.
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