Michigan court to hear dispute over murder charge against ex-police officer who shot Black motorist

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — Lawyers for a former Michigan police officer are asking the state appeals court to throw out a murder charge in the killing a Black motorist in 2022. The court is scheduled to hear arguments Wednesday in the case against Christopher Schurr. He shot Patrick Lyoya in the back of the head after a traffic stop in Grand Rapids. Schurr’s attorneys say in a filing that lower courts wrongly applied the law to the circumstances of Lyoya’s death. They say deadly force was justified to prevent him from fleeing. A judge found enough evidence to send the second-degree murder case to a trial court. The evidence includes video of the shooting.