I cannot get into the mind of the unnamed Grand Rapids, Michigan, police officer who shot Patrick Lyoya in the back of the head two weeks ago, but I do know a suspect car tag is not a capital offense. The officer stopped Mr. Lyoya, a Congolese immigrant, and informed him that his license plate did not match the car’s make and model. Mr. Lyoya seemed confused about why he was stopped and the instructions he received from the officer. He answered “yes” when asked if he spoke English, but his face told a different story. A lot of speculative guesses will be offered for both Mr. Lyoya and the police officer about what went wrong.
I believe Mr. Lyoya was wrong to resist, wrong to run, and wrong to fight the officer. It would not be beyond reason to believe the officer was excited and scared. The problem with all the excuses, justifications, and alibis is that Mr. Lyoya is dead over a license plate. It is also fair to point out that criminal activity by persons impersonating police officers and robbing or injuring the people they stop is known to happen in his homeland. So, if we concede that an armed officer was probably scared, an unarmed Mr. Lyoya must have been terrified.
Patrick Lyoya had reason to be scared by a white man with a gun. Both officers and civilians have been repeatedly recorded executing black men and women publicly, and cooperation is not always a guarantee of survival. How many men does it take begging for their lives to demand change? Screaming for a breath, begging for momma’s intervention, or pointing out the gun in the glove compartment is legal and licensed. It is easy for people who do not look like me or have sons, daughters, and grandchildren who look like me to say, oh, just cooperate, and everything will be ok.
Many would say Daunte Wright, Rayshard Brooks, and Walter Scott did not cooperate, but Philando Castile, Amadou Diallo, and Breonna Taylor did, and their fates were the same. Castile was driving his fiancé and her baby home after work. Mr. Scott tried to avoid jail for not paying his child support, and young Breonna Taylor died in her underwear. Wright and Brooks were scared young men.
Whenever I sit down to write a story or use my laptop for school, I am greeted by a desktop message that reads, “ I hope I don’t get killed for being black today.” In some cases where black men have met their deaths, they were guilty of traffic violations and other crimes. Eric Garner and George Floyd were big black men, one selling loose cigarettes and the other allegedly passed a phony twenty-dollar bill. The other things they had in common were children and family, as did the latest victim, Patrick Lyoya.
The officer who rode the back of Mr. Lyoya—drew his gun and shot him in the back of the head: he had control of Patrick Lyoya’s car, his passenger, and a choice. Remember, he chased Mr. Lyoya, who was in full retreat and running away. Shootings keep happening because we ask police officers to abandon their training under stress. They are not trained to de-escalate; they are there to arrest, disable or kill their prey. Mr. Lyoya is just the latest, and the next time—and there will be a next time, America will again debate if a black life matters.
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