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Trial begins for ex-Grand Rapids officer charged with murder in fatal shooting of Black motorist

April 28, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.) — Opening arguments in the trial of Christopher Schurr, the former Grand Rapids police officer who is charged with second degree murder in the fatal shooting of Patrick Lyoya, began in a Michigan courtroom on Monday morning. The trial began three years after the Black motorist’s death.

A jury was sworn in on Wednesday, with jurors and alternates consisting of four men and 10 women, with 10 white jurors, one Black and three Hispanic, according to ABC affiliate in Grand Rapids, WZZM.

Schurr was charged with second-degree murder in June 2022 and his appeal was denied by the Michigan Supreme Court in December 2024. He has pleaded not guilty.

Schurr was charged with second-degree murder in June 2022 and pleaded not guilty. Schurr fought the charge in court, arguing that he should not have to stand trial because he was acting within his rights as a police officer. His final appeal was denied by the Michigan Supreme Court in December 2024.

Video appears to show Lyoya, a 26-year-old immigrant who came to the U.S. to escape violence in his native Democratic Republic of the Congo, being shot in the head by Schurr after the officer pulled him over for an unregistered license plate on April 4, 2022.

Body camera video, which was released nine days after the shooting, showed Schurr pulling Lyoya over for a license plate violation. When Lyoya began walking away from Schurr, the video shows the officer shouting at Lyoya to “get back in the car.” Then a struggle ensued between the two men during which the video appears to show Lyoya reaching for Schurr’s stun gun.

The body camera was deactivated during the struggle, according to police, and does not show the moment Shurr shot Lyoya. But the fatal shot is seen on cell phone video captured by the passenger of the vehicle.

The video appears to show Schurr telling Lyoya to let go of the stun gun several times, and while Lyoya is on the ground with his face down and Schurr on top of him, the officer appears to shoot Lyoya in the back of his head. The Kent County medical examiner confirmed Lyoya died from a gunshot to the back of his head.

Schurr was fired on June 15, 2022 amid an investigation into the incident.

After the charges were filed, Schurr’s attorneys told WZZM on June 10, 2022 that Lyoya’s death was “not murder but an unfortunate tragedy, resulting from a highly volatile situation.”

“Mr. Lyoya continually refused to obey lawful commands and ultimately disarmed a police officer,” they wrote in a statement. “Mr. Lyoya gained full control of a police officer’s weapon while resisting arrest, placing Officer Schurr in fear of great bodily harm or death.”

Lyoya’s family filed a $100 million civil lawsuit against Schurr and the city of Grand Rapids in December 2022. Schurr denied wrongdoing in a response to the complaint, and in August 2023 a federal judge dismissed Grand Rapids from the lawsuit.

ABC News reached out to Shurr’s attorneys and the family of Lyoya ahead of the trial for further comment.

Before the trial, the U.S. Supreme Court denied Schurr’s legal team’s request to hear an appeal in the lawsuit filed by Lyoya’s family against the former officer.

Schurr’s defense team asked the court to decide whether the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals was wrong in determining it could not consider qualified immunity for Schurr at the time of the killing, WZZM reported.

Qualified immunity is a legal doctrine that protects government officials and police officers from being found individually liable in civil lawsuits.

Supreme Court denies Karen Read’s double jeopardy appeal

April 28, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. Supreme Court has denied Karen Read’s petition for certiorari, and therefore will not review her case.

Read had asked the Supreme Court to intervene in her case, arguing double jeopardy after the jurors allegedly agreed on acquittal for two charges in her first trial.

Read is accused of killing her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe, in January 2022. Prosecutors allege Read hit O’Keefe with her vehicle and left him to die as Boston was hit with a major blizzard. Read has denied the allegations and maintained her innocence.

Testimony in Read’s retrial — now in its second week — resumed Monday morning with testimony from Ian Whiffin, a digital forensics examiner from Cellebrite.

The judge declared a mistrial in Read’s first trial last year after the jury could not reach a unanimous verdict on all of the counts.

She was charged with first-degree murder, manslaughter while operating a motor vehicle under the influence and leaving the scene of a fatal accident. She pleaded not guilty.

Read’s attorneys asked multiple appeals courts to dismiss the charges of second-degree murder and leaving the scene of a fatal accident in the retrial. They argued in court filings that retrying her on the charges would violate double jeopardy protections because, based on subsequent statements from four jurors, the jury had reached a unanimous decision to acquit Read on the charges.

With the Supreme Court on Monday rejecting to hear her appeal, she’s run out of options.

Among the most dramatic testimony in the first week of the retrial was from O’Keefe’s mother, Margaret “Peggy” O’Keefe, who was not called to testify in Read’s first trial.

Peggy O’Keefe described her son as an “enthusiastic” fan of sports who was “wonderful” with his niece and nephew, for whom he provided primary guardianship following their parents’ untimely deaths.

“He was their No. 1,” she said, shakily, “They called him JJ.”

She sobbed when special prosecutor Hank Brennan showed a photo of her son smiling.

ABC News’ Meredith Deliso and Nadine El-Bawab contributed to this report.

Trump suggests Canadians should elect him, making the country the 51st state

April 28, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — In a social media post on the day of Canada’s election, President Donald Trump suggested that Canadians should vote for him in order for Canada to become the 51st state.

“Elect the man who has the strength and wisdom to cut your taxes in half, increase your military power, for free, to the highest level in the World, have your Car, Steel, Aluminum, Lumber, Energy, and all other businesses, QUADRUPLE in size, with ZERO TARIFFS OR TAXES, if Canada becomes the cherished 51st. State of the United States of America,” Trump said on Monday, seeming to refer to himself as the candidate.

He added, “America can no longer subsidize Canada with the Hundreds of Billions of Dollars a year that we have been spending in the past. It makes no sense unless Canada is a State!”

Despite Trump’s suggestion, Canadians cannot vote for him since he is not on the ballot. There are 16 registered political parties in Canada — with the Liberals and the Conservatives being the most dominant. Other parties include the Green Party, the Libertarian Party, the United Party and the Canadian Future Party.

In response to the president’s post, Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre issued a sharp reply, saying Trump should “stay out of our election.”

“The only people who will decide the future of Canada are Canadians at the ballot box. Canada will always be proud, sovereign, and independent, and we will NEVER be the 51st state,” Poilievre wrote in a post on X. “Today, Canadians can vote for change so we can strengthen our country, stand on our own two feet, and stand up to America from a position of strength.”

Canadian Prime Minister and Liberal Party leader Mark Carney posted a video on X on Monday with the message: “This is Canada — and we decide what happens here.”

Latest polls show the Liberals ahead of the Conservatives, when only a few months ago the Conservatives held a 25-point lead.

Canada has a parliamentary system, meaning if the Liberals win a majority of seats in the election, or are able to form a minority government with members of another party, Carney will continue to serve as prime minister.

Nearly all of the polls for the election are expected to close by 9:30 p.m. ET on Monday.

Oversight top Democrat Connolly ‘stepping back,’ saying his cancer has returned

April 28, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Rep. Gerry Connolly, the ranking Democrat on the powerful House Oversight Committee, announced he will “soon” step down from his role and won’t run for reelection because his cancer has returned.

“The sun is setting on my time in public service, and this will be my last term in Congress. I will be stepping back as Ranking Member of the Oversight Committee soon,” Connolly said in a statement. “With no rancor and a full heart, I move into this final chapter full of pride in what we’ve accomplished together over 30 years.”

Connolly, 75, who was first elected in 2009, defeated Rep. Alexandra Ocasio Cortez, 35, for the committee chair in December as the younger representative attempted to bring in a new generation of leadership.

Connolly announced he had been diagnosed with cancer of the esophagus in November.

“When I announced my diagnosis six months ago, I promised transparency,” he said in his statement Monday. “After grueling treatments, we’ve learned that the cancer, while initially beaten back, has now returned. I’ll do everything possible to continue to represent you and thank you for your grace.”

Connolly has served on the Oversight Committee since his first term and has led Democrats on the subcommittee on government operations since 2013. He won the chair vote, 131-84, according to multiple Democratic sources, cementing his role in one of the most high-profile positions in Washington to combat the Trump administration and a unified Republican majority in Congress.

Millions without power as outages hit Spain, Portugal and parts of France, Spanish officials say

April 28, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(LONDON) — Millions of people in Spain, Portugal and parts of France lost power on Monday due to an unknown grid issue, the Spanish government confirmed to ABC News.

The Spanish government said it called an emergency crisis meeting to fix the situation as soon as possible.

Authorities, meanwhile, asked people to stay at home and to avoid circulating, while emergency generators were also being put in place.

Red Eléctrica, the corporation that operates the national electricity grid in Spain, confirmed power outages across the country.

“Plans to restore the electricity supply have been activated in collaboration with companies in the sector following the zero that occurred in the peninsular system,” it wrote in a post to X. “The causes are being analyzed and all resources are being dedicated to solving it.”

A later post said power was recovered in some areas.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Democrats press White House over potential ‘insider trading’ before Trump tariff pause

April 28, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Democratic lawmakers are “urgently” calling for the White House to issue a full disclosure of financial transactions leading up to President Donald Trump’s sudden pause on a sweeping set of tariffs earlier this month, raising concerns that people close to the president “potentially violated federal ethics and insider trading laws” surrounding his actions.

Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Rep. Mike Levin, D-Calif., sent a letter on Monday, signed by a group of 23 other Democrats, to White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, calling for a commitment from all senior White House and executive branch employees to “expeditiously” transmit all reports related to their securities transactions since the start of Trump’s term to the Office of Government Ethics, requesting, too, that all of this mandatory reporting be made public.

The letter, shared first with ABC News, also asks that any extensions granted to White House employees related to their accounting reports become public, noting that this was practiced during the first Trump administration.

“We are concerned that no periodic transaction reports have been posted on the OGE database for White House officials’ individual disclosures at any point since President Trump took office on January 20, 2025,” Schiff and Levin wrote.

“There is reason to doubt that not a single senior White House official or employee has made any financial transactions triggering a periodic transaction report since the start of the Administration,” the letter continued. “As an important point of reference, during the first Trump Administration, periodic transaction reports filed by senior White House officials were made publicly available on the OGE’s disclosure database, as required by the Ethics in Government Act and the STOCK Act.”

The White House did not immediately respond to an ABC News request for comment.

Hours before Trump announced he was rolling back tariffs to 10% to all countries except China, which sent the stock market soaring, he posted on Truth Social: “BE COOL! Everything is going to work out well. The USA will be bigger and better than ever before!” and “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!! DJT.”

Stocks were down the morning before Trump’s Truth Social post. Nasdaq soared 12.1% at close, the index’s largest single-day gain since 2021, while the Dow jumped 7.8%, its biggest one-day increase in five years.

“Newly identified data raises concerns about potential violations of federal ethics and insider trading laws by individuals close to the President with access to non-public information,” Schiff and Levin’s letter reads.

Trump has said he hasn’t engaged in insider trading himself — but that he couldn’t definitively claim that members of his administration have not. “I can commit to myself, that’s all I can commit to,” Trump told reporters on Friday, when asked whether he could assure Americans that no one in his administration was insider trading with information about trade deals coming together.

Trump said he hires “honorable people” but said, “I have thousands of people that work for me, but I can’t imagine anybody doing that.”

The Democrats requested a response from Wiles no later than May 9, 2025, and for a “detailed plan” for how the administration plans to address any officials and employees who may have failed to file required disclosures from the start of the administration.

“By failing to take these steps, the Administration would be withholding critical information from the American people regarding potential violations of federal ethics and insider trading laws. We look forward to reviewing all required reports and disclosures,” Schiff and Levin wrote.

“Senior White House officials have influence over or become witting of consequential policy decisions that can have market moving impacts,” the letter said. “It is critical that such officials adhere to all applicable ethics, conflict of interest, and disclosure requirements.”

“The American public deserves nothing less than full transparency, particularly in the context of the harm done to pension funds and retirement savings as a result of the President’s erratic trade policy,” it continued

The letter was signed by Sens. Chris Van Hollen, Elizabeth Warren, Jeffrey Merkley and Elissa Slotkin, as well as Reps. Brad Sherman, Brad Schneider, Angie Craig, Jerry Nadler, Rashida Tlaib, Cleo Fields, Yassamin Ansari, Seth Magaziner, Pramila Jayapal, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Nanette Diaz Barragán, Mark DeSaulnier, Madeleine Dean and Delia Ramirez.

Schiff had previously written to Wiles and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer over the rollbacks on Trump’s tariffs. In that letter, sent with Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., Schiff asked for an investigation into potential conflicts of interest. Schiff has not received a response from Wiles following his request, a spokesperson for the senator told ABC News.

Putin declares temporary truce during Victory Day anniversary celebrations

April 28, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(LONDON) — Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced a temporary ceasefire to come into effect during the 80th anniversary commemoration of V Day, which celebrates the victory of the Soviet Union over Nazi Germany in 1945.

The ceasefire will come into effect on May 8 and end on May 10, the Kremlin announced in a statement posted to its official Telegram channel Monday.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Conclave to replace Pope Francis to begin May 7, Vatican says

April 28, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(ROME and LONDON) — The conclave to replace Pope Francis will begin Wednesday, May 7, the Vatican said on Monday.

Cardinals will convene at the Vatican to begin a process of finding a new pope, who will become the Catholic Church’s 267th leader.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

At least 11 killed, dozens injured as driver plows into crowd, Vancouver police say

April 28, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(VANCOUVER) — At least 11 people were killed and “dozens” of others were injured Saturday as a vehicle plowed into a large crowd at a street festival in Vancouver, officials said, describing it as a “mass casualty incident.”

“A 30-year-old suspect, a Vancouver man, was arrested at the scene,” the Vancouver Police Department said in a social media post, later adding, “At this time, we are confident that this incident was not an act of terrorism.”

Vancouver police identified the suspect as Kai-Ji Adam Lo. The BC Prosecution Service charged him with eight counts of second degree murder.

Lo, a Vancouver resident, appeared in court on Sunday and remains in custody. The charge assessment is ongoing and further charges are anticipated.

The suspect is believed to have acted alone and there is currently no active threat to Canadians, Prime Minister Mark Carney said while delivering short remarks in Hamilton, Ontario, on Sunday.

The suspect had a history of interactions with police and health professionals for mental health reasons, Vancouver Police Interim Chief Constable Steve Rai told reporters Sunday.

“This is the darkest day in our city’s history,” Rai said. “Last night, as thousands of members of Vancouver’s Filipino community gathered for an important cultural celebration, the actions of a single person shattered our collective sense of safety.”

Crowds had gathered in the Canadian city to celebrate Lapu Lapu Day, Mayor Ken Sim said in a statement. A vehicle “drove into a large crowd of people” at the festival in the South Vancouver neighborhood at about 8:14 p.m., police said.

“Our thoughts are with all those affected and with Vancouver’s Filipino community during this incredibly difficult time,” Sim said, describing the incident as “horrific.”

The ages of the 11 victims ranged from 5 to 65, according to Rai on Sunday. He also said the number of dead could rise in the coming days or weeks.

The block party celebrating Filipino culture and Lapu-Lapu, a national hero of the Philippines, had been scheduled to run through 8 p.m. on Saturday, according to the organizers. Rai said there was a risk assessment conducted before the festival, and there were “no known threats to the event or to the Filipino community.”

“It is hard to make sense of something so senseless,” Rai said.

Videos from the scene, which were verified by ABC News, appear to show the aftermath of the incident, which happened on a stretch of East 43rd Avenue that had been lined on both sides with food trucks.

The videos appear to show first responders rushing to help the injured between the rows of food trucks. A black SUV can be seen in one video with what appears to be heavy damage to its hood. Police have not yet publicly identified the suspect’s vehicle.

Carney said he was “devastated by the horrific events” at the festival, adding that at least 20 people were injured in addition to the 11 killed.

“I extend my deepest condolences to the loved ones of those killed and injured, to the Filipino Canadian community, and to everyone in Vancouver,” he said in a statement. “We are all mourning with you. We are closely monitoring the situation and are grateful to our first responders for their swift action.”

The investigation is ongoing, Carney added.

Jagmeet Singh, leader of Canada’s New Democratic Party, who spoke at the festival, said he was “horrified to learn of an incident at Vancouver’s Lapu Lapu Day celebrations that injured and killed innocent people.”

“As we wait to learn more, our thoughts are with the victims and their families — and Vancouver’s Filipino community, who were coming together today to celebrate resilience,” he said in a statement.

Reserve judge to handle cases of Milwaukee judge arrested by FBI, court says

April 28, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(MILWAUKEE, WI) — A reserve judge will be appointed to take over the cases of Judge Hannah Dugan, who was arrested by the FBI over allegedly helping an undocumented immigrant, according to a Milwaukee County official.

The county’s chief judge, Carl Ashley, said late Sunday that a reserve judge would take over Dugan’s calendar on Monday morning. The reserve judge was not named in the statement released to media.

Dugan, a judge on the Milwaukee County Circuit Court, was arrested on Friday over allegedly helping an undocumented immigrant “evade arrest” the week prior, FBI Director Kash Patel said.

Patel said on social media that the FBI believes “Judge Dugan intentionally misdirected federal agents away from the subject to be arrested in her courthouse.”

U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement that two FBI agents arrested Dugan “for allegedly helping an illegal alien avoid arrest” by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“No one is above the law,” Bondi said on Friday.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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