Police reforms tested in city where officer killed Black man

By COREY WILLIAMS
Associated Press

City leaders in Grand Rapids insist policing reforms and outreach to the Black community ensured protests following the killing of a Black motorist by a white police officer last April did not devolve into violence and destruction. But nearly a year after the young Congolese man, Patrick Lyoya, was shot in the back of the head after a traffic stop went awry, some members of the western Michigan city’s Black community are not so sure, saying the reforms have been superficial at best. Grand Rapids officer Christopher Schurr was fired and has been charged with second-degree murder in Lyoya’s April 4 death.