GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Thursday night, city leaders invited the community out to a discussion forum to take questions and offer mental health resources following the video release of Patrick Lyoya's death.
Some people say it was too soon to hold an event like this, and multiple people walked out of tonight's forum.
Close to 100 people filled Ottawa Hills High School auditorium for the forum, geared to discuss and process trauma after the video's release.
"We just witnessed Patrick Lyoya's death, his murder, yesterday," Graci Harkema says. "It's so fresh. It's so raw."
When the Q&A portion of the night started, tensions rose quickly in the auditorium, with strong words aimed at city leaders.
"I was not surprised to see so many reactions, so many emotions, because the reality is we haven't had time to process," Harkema says.
One of the panelists, Fridah Kanini, stepped in to help by comforting one of the activists.
"For me to see him so aggravated, I knew where he was coming from so I felt it was very necessary that he connects with a person they can feel that is relatable," she says.
She says she was glad to see city leaders put this event together, a discussion followed by small group sessions with mental health counselors. But she says too many of the African refugees and immigrants she works with couldn't make it.
"It's wonderful that they are creating this space," Kanini says. "But we need to be involved in the space so that we can make sure it's a two-way traffic."
Some people in the crowd were upset they could only write in their questions to be read aloud, rather than ask it themselves. And some people were upset about asking questions to begin with.
"And I see these events keep happening, and nobody doing something about it," Simon Gouk says. "I think (the organizers) missed totally the point of this event. This event is not for us asking questions because we've been asking this question long time ago."
While the meeting didn't go exactly according to plan, Harkema knows everyone works through trauma differently.
"Regardless of seeing all the different types of emotions that we had tonight, it was powerful to be able to see people connecting together under a tragic (circumstance)," she says. "It's tragic, but this is why we're connecting. But it's important that we have spaces that we can connect, and that we can vent and vocalize what we're experiencing."
While the second hour of the meeting was supposed to include small group sessions with mental health counselors, most people chose to continue the Q&A session with city leaders.
►Make it easy to keep up to date with more stories like this. Download the 13 ON YOUR SIDE app now.
Have a news tip? Email news@13onyourside.com, visit our Facebook page or Twitter. Subscribe to our YouTube channel.