Yet another shocking video of an African American killed by the police shakes the United States and unleashes protests in Gran Rapids, Michigan, where the episode took place on April 4.
The images, taken by several cameras, show 26-year-old Patrick Loyola on the ground and a white policeman chasing him with his leg on his back. The two are clashing on the taser extracted by the agent. “Leave him”, the policeman is heard shouting. "Leave the taser," repeats the agent before pulling out his gun and hitting the 26-year-old in the back of the head. The boy had been stopped for a trivial road check.
"The officer shot during the fight, he will be treated like anyone else and we will only reveal the name if he is indicted," says police chief Eric Winstrom. Hundreds of people took to the streets to demand justice for Loyola singing 'Black Lives Matter' and 'No justice, no peace'.
Winstorm met with Loyola's family, who moved to the United States from Congo in 2014. Faced with the shocking images, which were shown to him before going public, Loyola's father was frozen, "almost passed out" in front of him. to his son "lying on the ground with an officer on top of him who pulled out his gun and shot him in the head," said pastor Israel Siku who accompanied the boy's dad to the police.
A real "execution", commented the family. "Once again we are reminded how quickly interacting with the police can prove fatal to an African American in the United States," says attorney Benjamin Crump, who has handled the case of George Floyd, the face of the Black Lives Matter movement.
(Unioneonline / L)