Updated as of 5/10/2022 at 9:30 a.m.
The official autopsy results on the shooting and killing of Patrick Lyoya have been released from the Kent County Medical Examiner’s Office, reported CNN. The family previously ordered an independent autopsy which found Lyoya suffered no other injury besides a gunshot wound to the back of his head, reported News13.
According to video footage, Patrick Lyoya and a Grand Rapids officer engaged in a fight on April 4 during a traffic stop. The struggle ended with Patrick laying face down on the ground after being shot in the back of the head.
The medical examiner’s report found Lyoya died from a gunshot to the back of the head. It also found his blood alcohol level to be three times the legal limit, experts told the Detroit Free Press.
More from Detroit Free Press:
“The penalty for driving while intoxicated is not a gunshot wound to the back of the head,” said Ven Johnson, one of the lawyers representing the Lyoya family. “It would be arrest, and go to jail and face the music in court, but not a gunshot wound to the back of the head.”
He said it has no impact on the cause or manner of death. Lyoya’s death was ruled a homicide caused by a “gunshot wound of the head,” the report said.
In a press conference, civil rights attorney Ben Crump announced the findings from the independent autopsy conducted by Dr. Werner Spitz, a 95-year-old pathologist who worked on the assassination investigations of President John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.
“This independent autopsy report confirms what we all witnessed in the horrifying video footage - unarmed Patrick Lyoya was conscious until the bullet entered his head, instantly ending what could have been a long and fruitful life,” said Crump.
More on the autopsy from News13:
Dr. Spitz concluded that Lyoya died as the result of a single gunshot wound that entered the back of his skull near the midline.
He says he believed the gun was pressed to the back of Lyoya’s head when the bullet traveled up to the right side of his skull and lodged near his right temporal bone.
Dr. Spitz said there was no other injury on Lyoya’s body other than the fatal gunshot wound.
Additional information on Lyoya was found including previous traffic cases, a revoked license and three open warrants dating back to 2016. However, none of those can justify his murder.
As the family had previously demanded, the name of the officer who shot and killed Lyoya was named as Christopher Schurr. Michigan State Police are investigating the incident and the prosecutor will decide whether the officer will face criminal charges. Schurr will remain on administrative leave and stripped of his policing powers until the investigation closes.