Officer Argues Qualified Immunity in Lyoya Shooting Due to Suspect Wielding Taser Like Gun

GRAND RAPIDS (LN) — Grand Rapids Police Officer Christopher Schurr argues he is entitled to qualified immunity for the fatal shooting of Patrick Lyoya, asserting that the developed record shows Lyoya had seized the officer's Taser, held it like a firearm with his thumb on the safety switch, and began turning toward Schurr. These claims were detailed in a motion for summary judgment filed Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan.

The motion argues that Schurr's single shot was a constitutionally reasonable response to an imminent threat created after a sustained physical struggle where every lower-force option had failed.

Schurr's counsel contends that Lyoya gained sole possession of the Taser during the April 4, 2022, encounter and was holding the device in a manner consistent with a firearm, with his thumb blocking the safety switch, just fired.

The filing asserts that every relevant source, including Grand Rapids Police Department training manuals, Michigan State Police investigators, the Taser manufacturer Axon, and biomedical experts, confirms that an officer who loses control of their Taser to an actively resisting subject faces an imminent risk of incapacitation and disarmament of their service firearm.

GRPD Captain David Siver, who oversees the department's training division, is cited in the motion as testifying that "if somebody disarms the officer of a weapon, that's deadly force," and that an officer in such a situation is not required to cycle back through lower-force options that have already failed.

The motion also seeks to limit damages under the Michigan Wrongful Death Act by arguing that Dorcas Lyoya, who is listed as a plaintiff's beneficiary, is not Patrick Lyoya's biological mother and never legally adopted him, thus failing to qualify as a "parent" under state law. The motion notes that the plaintiff admitted to these facts during discovery.

Plaintiff's counsel declined to concur with the motion for summary judgment, which requests oral argument before Magistrate Judge Sally J. Berens and District Judge Paul L. Maloney.

The case remains pending as the court considers whether the specific circumstances of Lyoya gaining control of the Taser place the constitutional question beyond debate for a reasonable officer as of April 4, 2022.