Christopher Schurr's murder trial ended in a hung jury. It still has value.

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09-05-2025

As a retired Detroit Police Department investigator with over four decades of experience investigating violent crime, and as someone who once stood trial for second-degree murder after acting to save my partner's life and my own, I understand, in the most personal and painful way, the emotional, legal and moral weight of a split-second decision made under duress.
In 1993, during a gang enforcement operation, I believed my partner had just been shot. I returned fire in what I perceived to be an ambush, an incident sparked when a third party inserted himself into our investigation. Prosecutors charged both my partner and I with murder.
The headlines were deafening. Public judgment swift. But once the jury heard the full story, understood the peril we faced, and saw the situation in context, they acquitted us.
The scars of that ordeal stayed with me, not out of guilt, but from being publicly vilified before the facts were even understood.
Officers carry the burden not just of their actions, but of how those actions are perceived. In today's climate, I'm not certain I'd want a public jury deciding my fate.
But I am certain that full transparency and due process are necessary in every case where a life is lost at the hands of police.
That's why I publicly supported the decision to bring Officer Christopher Schurr, now a former Grand Rapids police officer, to trial for the killing of Patrick Lyoya.
A man was shot in the back of the head. The officer was white. The deceased was Black. The event occurred in a city already strained by distrust between law enforcement and the community. The killing was captured on video, and the surrounding facts were unclear.
That is precisely the kind of case where a trial isn't just appropriate, it's essential.
To those who criticized my stance, including some in law enforcement: Due process is not disloyalty. It's the very heart of justice. Trials don't weaken police legitimacy, they reinforce it. Public trust is eroded not when officers are held accountable, but when accountability is absent.
Here are the uncontested facts:
On April 4, 2022, Officer Schurr initiated a traffic stop involving Patrick Lyoya, a Congolese refugee, due to a license plate issue.
Lyoya exited the vehicle and appeared disoriented. He did not comply with verbal commands.
A physical altercation ensued.
Schurr deployed his Taser, which Lyoya either grabbed or deflected.
After approximately 90 seconds of struggle, Schurr drew his firearm and shot Lyoya in the back of the head.
According to prosecutors, Lyoya never had full control of the Taser. According to Schurr, he feared it would be used against him.
That distinction is at the heart of the legal question.
Under Michigan law, deadly force is justified if an officer has a reasonable and honest belief that their life is in imminent danger. The trial was necessary to determine whether that standard was met. Was this a reasonable fear under the circumstances, or an excessive, criminal overreaction?
This is precisely what a trial is for.
As someone who has endured that crucible, I can tell you: Trials are grueling. But they are the only venue where fear can be measured against fact, and training evaluated against outcome. That's not persecution, it's the rule of law in action.
The video was jarring. A man face-down. A gun drawn. A fatal shot. For many in the community, especially those who have witnessed similar tragedies, it resembled an execution.
But context matters. The physical struggle. The malfunction or resistance to the Taser. The split-second judgment. None of it automatically exonerates the officer. But it all demands examination.
We must be clear: Not all killings by police are criminal. But not all are justified, either. Officers are trained to assess threat, to de-escalate, to use force proportionally, and to retreat if safe. Whether those principles were followed here was a question for the court, not for the media, and not for public opinion alone.
When a white officer kills a Black man in America, history walks into the courtroom with them. Communities see patterns. Officers see accusations. But justice must be rooted not in identity, but in evidence and standards.
To my fellow officers: A trial is not an indictment of all police. It's a reaffirmation that the badge stands for justice, not exemption. If a shooting is lawful, let the facts show it. If not, we must own that too. That's how trust is built.
On Thursday, the trial ended in a hung jury. Prosecutors haven't decided whether Schurr will be re-tried.
I wasn't surprised. The decision was a sobering reminder of the complexities of our justice system, especially in cases involving police use of force. The jury, made up of ordinary citizens, listened to all the evidence, examined the facts, and deliberated for days. In the end, they could not come to a unanimous decision, and that is part of our legal process.
A hung jury is not a victory or loss for either side. It is a signal that, despite the gravity of the evidence and the emotion surrounding the case, the jurors were genuinely divided. That division reflects the larger tensions in our society, about policing, race, accountability and justice.
But the value of this trial endures. It reminded us that every life lost in an encounter with law enforcement deserves a full and fair examination, not just for justice, but for the preservation of public trust.
This was never about condemning Schurr personally. It was about ensuring that no death, especially one so public, so charged, and so painful, goes unquestioned.
That is not a threat to law enforcement. It is the cornerstone of its legitimacy.
Just one man's opinion.
Ira Todd spent 35 years with the Detroit Police Department, retiring as an investigator. Submit a letter to the editor at freep.com/letters, and we may publish it online and in print.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Christopher Schurr charges in Lyoya killing were rule of law | Opinion