Posted on 05/05/2025 5:48:00 PM PDT by xxqqzz
The jury in the trial of Christopher Schurr went home without a verdict on Monday after hours of deliberation.
While the facts of the case have never been in dispute — Schurr shot Lyoya in the back of the head as the two struggled over his taser during an April 2022 traffic stop — it's the jury's duty to decide whether Schurr acted within his role as a police officer when he fired the fatal shot.
The Prosecution's Case
Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker argued Schurr's use of force was not necessary. To this end, he called to the stand a pair of expert witnesses on police use of force who claimed Schurr's actions — according to generally accepted police practices — were not reasonable as both of the cartridges on his taser had already been discharged when he fired the fatal shot from his gun.
Watch the prosecutor's closing arguments in full below
"Second-degree murder. That's what this case is about," Becker said during his closing argument. "Murder. Somebody died."
Becker said Lyoya was "not a saint," but did not deserve to die.
"Why are we here?" Becker asked. "Was the killing justified?"
(Excerpt) Read more at fox17online.com ...
If a perp gets a hold of a taser, it warrants shooting him dead. The taser can be used against the officer and an incapacitated officer is dead.
There may be other issues, like failure to follow procedure that need to be dealt with. However, shooting a perp dead if he acquires the taser is not something that the officer needs to be held accountable for, imo.
Generally speaking, a fight involving a perp and a cop should be viewed as a struggle for the cop’s weapon, a life-or-death struggle with obvious intent on the perp’s part.
Sentient beings can correctly infer the perp’s actions had he gotten the cop’s taser.
Absolutely, I agree. If you don’t want to be shot, don’t resist to the point where a struggle must take place to apprehend you. I’ve never had any trouble with an officer with a stop. I follow orders and I ensure the officer has no reason to be suspicious about my movements and I suck it up and take the ticket for my offense.
“he called to the stand a pair of expert witnesses on police use of force who claimed Schurr’s actions — according to generally accepted police practices — were not reasonable as both of the cartridges on his taser had already been discharged when he fired the fatal shot from his gun.”
So? It still works as a contact weapon and they were wrestling. It doesn’t need a cartridge to electrocute him.
You're fighting for your life and you're supposed to be counting the number of times the perp trying to kill you fired the taser?
Icymi, yep, the dead man is on the color spectrum of most of the murderers in the U.S.
Yep... and anyway, it doesn’t matter. A Taser is useful in a close in fight whether it has cartridges or not.
“ Absolutely, I agree. If you don’t want to be shot, don’t resist to the point where a struggle must take place to apprehend you. I’ve never had any trouble with an officer with a stop. I follow orders and I ensure the officer has no reason to be suspicious about my movements and I suck it up and take the ticket for my offense.”
That’s what I told my kids and other family members from day one. Taking the ticket and going to traffic court is always better than being perp walked into jail for a felony and having your car impounded.
Wonder what’s going to happen when the woke DAs shaft so many of the sheepdogs that the rest say “to hell with it” and either quit or relocate to a place where the law abiding citizens and DAs want them.
Then the ‘Rat-voting sheeple will be totally at the mercy of the wolves. What could go wrong??!? Well, FA and FO, dumb naive sheeple.
That kind of a fight is not “A SQUARE DANCE WITH A CALLER & REQUIRED MOVES”.
What’s the policeman supposed to do, just get killed? Perp was probably not wanted fugitive, but just drunk being stopped for DUI. I guess it is OK to just wrestle away a policeman’s taser. What do you expect to happen?
Totally ridiculous he was charged, particularly of murder.
Having been a police trainer for decades.
The problems run deeper.
The lack of being physically prepared, the lack of being well trained in marshal arts.
The trend away from impact weapons.
The going away from height and weight standards.
All add up to the officers resorting to firearms.
Judging from the videos I’ve seen or newspaper reports that I’ve read about, I think some of it is caused by just sending a single cop to try and handle a situation. Many of these situations might not become bad situations if there were three cops showing up all the time.
In my city, that’s basically policy. Almost every car in the evening and at night has at least two cops and when they do show up there will be at least two cop cars showing up. I think multiple cops for calls heads off a lot of problems right from the start.
Yeah, in response to the last two posters, when I was growing up, there were always two to a patrol car, and generally two patrolling together on foot. They obviously had to do that in the real old days before they could call for backup on radio.
Also, you look at the cop testifying and he looks like a fairly little guy. Maybe they have to take those, because if they just took big brawny guys that would exclude women.
Definitely not good for the policeman to lose his taser in the scuffle.
That being said, the murder charges are ridiculous. Yeah, he shot the guy in the back of the head at close range, but he told the guy to drop the taser and he didn’t, so the cop was legitimately fearing for his life. What could the guy expect to happen when he took the taser. I have seen videos of many much worse police shootings where the policeman wasn’t charged.
When I Started in police work in the 70’s.
Many times I was the lone LEO in the county. 1500 plus square miles.
Back up was called from home or the next county.
One learned to talk and one had to fend for oneself many times.
When one could have two officers on scene it help clam things down.
Also, you look at the cop testifying and he looks like a fairly little guy. Maybe they have to take those, because if they just took big brawny guys that would exclude women.
Affirmative action/DEI allowed for very small and physically uncapable. Officer’s to be hired.
As the son of a cop I have no sympathy for anyone that attacks a cop. With all the sh!t people are swallowing or injecting nowadays you have no idea what they are capable of doing.
We used to say “Mess with the bull, you get the horns”.
In to day’s vernacular: FAFO
One can only hope that the lead recipient’s death serves as an example of what NOT to do.
Good riddance to bad trash.
I not only follow the police officer’s instructions, but I repeat the instructions and speak out loud what I am doing. If requested for license and insurance, I tell the police officer where each is located and inform the officer that I am reaching for these items in the glove box.
The extreme case of caution was the Fullerton, CA police department that was a regular on On Patrol Live for a while.
Because of all the gang activity they often waited until they had ten cops or more before approaching a potentially dangerous situation in tough neighborhoods. The gang graffiti in the areas was normally a “clue” that it was enemy occupied territory.
Even then the gang bangers had an “attitude”.
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