A fuller picture is emerging of Patrick Lyoya, who died at the hands of a Grand Rapids police officer early this month. The Detroit News has the deepest dive yet on the 26-year-old, who is described as fun-loving, attentive to family and a hard worker, but one who had repeated brushes with the law.
Patrick Lyoya (Photo: Instagram)
Lyoya and his parents immigrated in 2014 from the Democratic Republic of Congo, and settled in Lansing, although Patrick later moved to Grand Rapids.
The News reports in a subscribers-only article:
The portrait reveals Lyoya, an African immigrant who fled to the United States with his family for safety more than seven years ago, found love, friendship, a job in an auto parts factory and trouble with the law.
That includes two convictions for assaulting women, one of whom was pregnant; at least two arrests for crimes involving stolen cars, both of which were reduced to misdemeanors; and repeated drinking and driving, including one for which he was awaiting sentencing on the day he was killed.
The convictions contrast with memories shared by family and friends and in Lyoya's social media posts.
Lyoya was the father of two, and his girlfriend, the mother of his 2-year-old daughter, called him a diligent father who often video-called her and their baby. His other child, also a daughter, was with another woman. Family and friends described Lyoya as fun-loving and sweet.
Lyoya's social-media posts showed him dancing and otherwise enjoying life.
“Single for life,” he wrote (on one post). “Keep moving until I find the right one.”
His criminal history tells a different story. His latest drunk-driving arrest was his third, and he served five days in jail and a year's probation for assaulting a girlfriend in 2017.
Lawyer Ven Johnson said Lyoya's criminal history has no bearing on his death April 4. A funeral will be held Friday morning at a Grand Rapids church.
