GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — The family of Patrick Lyoya says it will continue to fight for legal justice after a jury could not come to a verdict in the trial of the former police officer who shot him.
"We came here. We were fighting and we get to the end. We thought that we are getting to the close of this case and we'll go get the justice, but we came to realize that it was a hung jury. They could not come to the agreement to condemn this guy or to or to find him guilty," said Peter Lyoya, Patrick's father, through an interpreter on Thursday.
"I want to say that it hurts my family, my wife, we are bleeding. We are in pain," he said.
Lyoya, a 26-year-old Congolese refugee, was shot in the head by Christopher Schurr during a struggle over the then-officer's taser following a traffic stop.
The family listened in to the testimony presented across six days, especially interested in what Schurr would say on the stand.
"When he went to testify, my heart was bleeding, and the first thing I thought he would say coming from his mouth was going to say, 'I'm sorry' to the family to apologize for what he did wrong, but he didn't," said Dorcas Lyoya, Patrick's mother. "He was like he had no remorse. He had no guilt. He didn't care that he took the life of a human being. It seemed like he only killed an animal. That's how he presented himself because basically he did not show any emotion that he was wrong for what he did."
"I thought as a as a human being that he will feel the remorse," said Peter Lyoya. "He will feel the pain that we went through and he could apologize, but no, he didn't care. And also he displayed that he was joyful. He was happy for what he did. So that was really painful to me and to my entire family."
"I want him to know that he's still carrying the blood of Patrick on him and he's responsible for the blood of Patrick."
The family's legal team hopes Prosecutor Chris Becker will retry the case.
"We encourage prosecutor Becker to remain alongside this family and to move forward with a retrial because we believe that this officer should be brought to criminal justice," said Ven Johnson, the Lyoya family's attorney.
Shooting death of Patrick Lyoya
LIVE UPDATES: Judge declares a mistrial in trial of Christopher Schurr
The family's lawsuit against Christopher Schurr is still pending in federal court, after the U.S. Supreme Court denied an appeal by the former officer earlier this year. Johnson said the mistrial should not impact the civil case.
"I think this shows that our civil case is extremely strong," said Johnson, "and we will be moving forward with that belief and, and we'll talk about as things materialize closer to trial."
Regardless of whether a new criminal case is brought against Schurr, the Lyoya's feel they will get justice for their son.
"I don't really worry a lot about this because I do know that Patrick will get justice," said Peter Lyoya. "As long as we are here, we will fight still to the end and we will get justice for Patrick. We are not going to give up."
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