What to know about the trial of an ex-Michigan officer charged in the killing of a Black motorist

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — Jurors considering second-degree murder charges against a former Michigan police officer repeatedly watched videos Monday showing the officer struggling with and then shooting a Black man, Patrick Lyoya, whose death three years ago sparked weeks of protest and outrage.

The trial of Christopher Schurr, who is white, is expected to last at least a week and drew several supporters outside the downtown Grand Rapids courthouse — some carrying U.S. flags or “thin blue line” flags in support of law enforcement.

Lyoya, a 26-year-old Congolese immigrant who sought U.S. refuge with his family from violence in his homeland, was shot in the back of the head while facedown on the ground after a traffic stop in 2022.

Schurr’s attorneys said in their opening statements that the officer acted in self-defense, while prosecutors began to make their case that the deadly use of force was unnecessary and excessive.

Early witnesses for prosecutors included three men who saw the struggle and shooting, along with police investigators and a medical examiner who testified the gun was “probably” right up against Lyoya's head.

The trial is scheduled to resume on Tuesday.

Schurr pulled over a vehicle driven by Lyoya for improper license plates on a rainy morning, April 4, 2022, in a Grand Rapids residential neighborhood.

Body camera and dash camera footage shows Lyoya running from Schurr after he requests his driver's license. Schurr tackles Lyoya and a struggle ensues as Schurr attempts to shoot his Taser at Lyoya.

Schurr’s body camera footage appears to show Lyoya reaching for the officer’s Taser. The body camera footage goes out before the shooting.

A passenger in Lyoya's car recorded video. The cellphone footage shows the officer telling Lyoya to let go of the Taser multiple times.

While Lyoya is facedown on the ground with Schurr on top of him, the officer takes out his firearm and shoots Lyoya once in the back of the head.

As prosecutors played the video Monday for the first time for jurors, Lyoya's mother and father broke into tears when the gunshot rang out from the video. His mother then covered her eyes.

Prosecutors called witnesses who saw the traffic stop, ensuing struggle or fatal shooting. The witnesses included the passenger who recorded the cellphone video and a neighborhood resident who saw the struggle between Lyoya and Schurr, but went back inside his house before Lyoya was shot.

The resident, Wayne Butler, said Schurr had control. Butler said he tried to tell Lyoya to comply with the officer's commands.

“In America's history, this is how it ends every time,” he said.

The videos, in addition to a doorbell security video from a nearby house, were repeatedly shown throughout the day. Testimony from one witness focused on a synced view of the angles played simultaneously.

Ven Johnson, an attorney representing Lyoya's family in a separate civil case, said it was “devastating” for the family to see the footage and an autopsy photo of Lyoya's head.

Lyoya’s family has said he came to the U.S. to escape prolonged civil unrest by several rebel groups vying for control of territories in the mineral-rich eastern Congo. He was raising two children in Grand Rapids, a city of around 200,000 people, some 150 miles (240 kilometers) northwest of Detroit.

Following his arrival, Lyoya ultimately joined a list of names of Black immigrants who sought better lives in the U.S. only to suffer abuse or death at the hands of law enforcement. Before him, there was Botham Jean, Amadou Diallo and Abner Louima, all men whose cases increased awareness around the global impact of systemic racism in policing.

The Rev. Al Sharpton, the civil rights leader who eulogized Lyoya at his 2022 funeral, noted then that Lyoya was killed on April 4, the anniversary of the 1968 assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Lyoya, in searching for a better life, “ran into an America that we know too well,” Sharpton said.

Lyoya’s killing prompted weeks of protest in the west Michigan city and calls to reform the police department.

Schurr, now 34, was fired by the police department shortly after he was charged with one count of second-degree murder in June 2022.

He had worked for the department for seven years.

Schurr has said he acted in self-defense. If convicted, he faces up to life in prison.

Schurr was attentive as opening statements were given, occasionally turning to discuss with his attorneys. He watched the cellphone video that was played for the jury.

Tasers are generally considered nonlethal by police but the narrative often flips when handled by someone who is not law enforcement, said Ian Adams, a professor of criminology at the University of South Carolina. Whether Schurr gave proper warning of his use of lethal force also will likely be of note to the jury, Adams said.

Both legal teams directly spoke to that issue in their opening statements Monday.

“A lot of what you’re going to hear about is this Taser,” Kent County Prosecutor Christopher Becker said. Becker said the Taser already had been deployed twice and therefore did not pose a threat to Schurr.

Mikayla Hamilton, one of Schurr's attorneys, said Schurr acted within reason and Lyoya's resistance signaled danger to the officer. Picking up the Taser from a table as she spoke, she said it can cause injury even after it is deployed.

“Officer Schurr was flooded with fear,” she said.

Associated Press writer Fernanda Figueroa in Austin, Texas, contributed.

Sally R. of Holland holds a "blue line" flag outside the Kent County Courthouse on the first day of testimony in the 2nd degree murder trial of former Grand Rapids City Police officer Christopher Schurr on April 28, 2025 in Grand Rapids, MI. Schurr shot and killed Congolese immigrant Patrick Lyoya during a traffic stop three years ago. (Chris duMond/Detroit News via AP)

This image made from video provided by WOOD-TV shows Judge Christina Mims sitting in her courtroom at the Kent County Courthouse in Grand Rapids, Mich., on the first day of Christopher Schurr's trial, Monday, April 28, 2025. (WOOD-TV via AP, Pool)

This image made from video provided by WOOD-TV shows Christopher Schurr's family members and supporters sitting in court at the Kent County Courthouse in Grand Rapids, Mich., on the first day of his trial, Monday, April 28, 2025. (WOOD-TV via AP, Pool)

This image made from video provided by WOOD-TV shows Christopher Schurr in court at the Kent County Courthouse in Grand Rapids, Mich., on the first day of his trial, Monday, April 28, 2025. (WOOD-TV via AP, Pool)

This image made from video provided by WOOD-TV shows Patrick Lyoya's mother, Dorcas, as she sits in court on the first day of Christopher Schurr's trial in the Kent County Courthouse in Grand Rapids, Mich., Monday, April 28, 2025. (WOOD-TV via AP, Pool)

Christopher Schurr supporters stand outside the Kent County Courthouse in Grand Rapids, Mich., Monday, April 28, 2025. (Neil Blake/The Grand Rapids Press via AP)

The family of Patrick Lyoya and Kent County commissioner Robert Womack, right, arrive outside the Kent County Courthouse in Grand Rapids, Mich., Monday, April 28, 2025. (Chris duMond/Detroit News via AP)

Former Grand Rapids City Police officer Christopher Schurr and wife Brandey arrive outside the Kent County Courthouse on the first day of testimony in his 2nd degree murder trial in Grand Rapids, Mich., Monday, April 28, 2025. (Chris duMond/Detroit News via AP)

This image made from video provided by WOOD-TV shows Christopher Schurr in court at the Kent County Courthouse in Grand Rapids, Mich., on the first day of his trial, Monday, April 28, 2025. (WOOD-TV via AP, Pool)

FILE - Patrick Lyoya's mother, Dorcas Lyoya, waits for the Michigan Court of Appeals hearing in the case against Christopher Schurr to begin in downtown Grand Rapids, Mich., on Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2023. (Cory Morse/MLive.com/The Grand Rapids Press via AP)

FILE - A TV display shows Patrick Lyoya as video evidence of a Grand Rapids police officer struggling with and shooting Patrick Lyoya is shown at Grand Rapids City Hall in Grand Rapids, Mich., Wednesday, April 13, 2022. (Grand Rapids Police Department via AP)

FILE - Ex-Grand Rapids police officer Christopher Schurr appears for the second day of his preliminary examination at the Kent County Courthouse in Grand Rapids, Mich., Friday, Oct. 28, 2022. (Joel Bissell/The Grand Rapids Press via AP, File, File)

U.S. President Donald Trump says Iran has proposed negotiations after his threat to strike the Islamic Republic as an ongoing crackdown on demonstrators has led to hundreds of deaths.

Trump said late Sunday that his administration was in talks to set up a meeting with Tehran, but cautioned that he may have to act first as reports mount of increasing deaths and the government continues to arrest protesters.

“The meeting is being set up, but we may have to act because of what’s happening before the meeting. But a meeting is being set up. Iran called, they want to negotiate,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday night.

Iran did not acknowledge Trump’s comments immediately. It has previously warned the U.S. military and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if America uses force to protect demonstrators.

The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which has accurately reported on past unrest in Iran, gave the death toll. It relies on supporters in Iran cross checking information. It said at least 544 people have been killed so far, including 496 protesters and 48 people from the security forces. It said more than 10,600 people also have been detained over the two weeks of protests.

With the internet down in Iran and phone lines cut off, gauging the demonstrations from abroad has grown more difficult. Iran’s government has not offered overall casualty figures.

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A witness told the AP that the streets of Tehran empty at the sunset call to prayers each night.

Part of that stems from the fear of getting caught in the crackdown. Police sent the public a text message that warned: “Given the presence of terrorist groups and armed individuals in some gatherings last night and their plans to cause death, and the firm decision to not tolerate any appeasement and to deal decisively with the rioters, families are strongly advised to take care of their youth and teenagers.”

Another text, addressed “Dear parents,” which claimed to come from the intelligence arm of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, also directly warned people not to take part in demonstrations.

The witness spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity due to the ongoing crackdown.

—- By Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Iran drew tens of thousands of pro-government demonstrators to the streets Monday in a show of power after nationwide protests challenging the country’s theocracy.

Iranian state television showed images of demonstrators thronging Tehran toward Enghelab Square in the capital.

It called the demonstration an “Iranian uprising against American-Zionist terrorism,” without addressing the underlying anger in the country over the nation’s ailing economy. That sparked the protests over two weeks ago.

State television aired images of such demonstrations around the country, trying to signal it had overcome the protests, as claimed by Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi earlier in the day.

China says it opposes the use of force in international relations and expressed hope the Iranian government and people are “able to overcome the current difficulties and maintain national stability.”

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said Monday that Beijing “always opposes interference in other countries’ internal affairs, maintains that the sovereignty and security of all countries should be fully protected under international law, and opposes the use or threat of use of force in international relations.”

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz condemned “in the strongest terms the violence that the leadership in Iran is directing against its own people.”

He said it was a sign of weakness rather than strength, adding that “this violence must end.”

Merz said during a visit to India that the demonstrators deserve “the greatest respect” for the courage with which “they are resisting the disproportional, brutal violence of Iranian security forces.”

He said: “I call on the Iranian leadership to protect its population rather than threatening it.”

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman on Monday suggested that a channel remained open with the United States.

Esmail Baghaei made the comment during a news conference in Tehran.

“It is open and whenever needed, through that channel, the necessary messages are exchanged,” he said.

However, Baghaei said such talks needed to be “based on the acceptance of mutual interests and concerns, not a negotiation that is one-sided, unilateral and based on dictation.”

The semiofficial Fars news agency in Iran, which is close to the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, on Monday began calling out Iranian celebrities and leaders on social media who have expressed support for the protests over the past two weeks, especially before the internet was shut down.

The threat comes as writers and other cultural leaders were targeted even before protests. The news agency highlighted specific celebrities who posted in solidarity with the protesters and scolded them for not condemning vandalism and destruction to public property or the deaths of security forces killed during clashes. The news agency accused those celebrities and leaders of inciting riots by expressing their support.

Canada said it “stands with the brave people of Iran” in a statement on social media that strongly condemned the killing of protesters during widespread protests that have rocked the country over the past two weeks.

“The Iranian regime must halt its horrific repression and intimidation and respect the human rights of its citizens,” Canada’s government said on Monday.

Iran’s foreign minister claimed Monday that “the situation has come under total control” after a bloody crackdown on nationwide protests in the country.

Abbas Araghchi offered no evidence for his claim.

Araghchi spoke to foreign diplomats in Tehran. The Qatar-funded Al Jazeera satellite news network, which has been allowed to work despite the internet being cut off in the country, carried his remarks.

Iran’s foreign minister alleged Monday that nationwide protests in his nation “turned violent and bloody to give an excuse” for U.S. President Donald Trump to intervene.

Abbas Araghchi offered no evidence for his claim, which comes after over 500 have been reported killed by activists -- the vast majority coming from demonstrators.

Araghchi spoke to foreign diplomats in Tehran. The Qatar-funded Al Jazeera satellite news network, which has been allowed to work despite the internet being cut off in the country, carried his remarks.

Iran has summoned the British ambassador over protesters twice taking down the Iranian flag at their embassy in London.

Iranian state television also said Monday that it complained about “certain terrorist organization that, under the guise of media, spread lies and promote violence and terrorism.” The United Kingdom is home to offices of the BBC’s Persian service and Iran International, both which long have been targeted by Iran.

A huge crowd of demonstrators, some waving the flag of Iran, gathered Sunday afternoon along Veteran Avenue in LA’s Westwood neighborhood to protest against the Iranian government. Police eventually issued a dispersal order, and by early evening only about a hundred protesters were still in the area, ABC7 reported.

Los Angeles is home to the largest Iranian community outside of Iran.

Los Angeles police responded Sunday after somebody drove a U-Haul box truck down a street crowded with the the demonstrators, causing protesters to scramble out of the way and then run after the speeding vehicle to try to attack the driver. A police statement said one person was hit by the truck but nobody was seriously hurt.

The driver, a man who was not identified, was detained “pending further investigation,” police said in a statement Sunday evening.

Shiite Muslims hold placards and chant slogans during a protest against the U.S. and show solidarity with Iran in Lahore, Pakistan, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)

Activists carrying a photograph of Reza Pahlavi take part in a rally supporting protesters in Iran at Lafayette Park, across from the White House, in Washington, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Activists take part in a rally supporting protesters in Iran at Lafayette Park, across from the White House in Washington, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Protesters burn the Iranian national flag during a rally in support of the nationwide mass demonstrations in Iran against the government in Paris, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)