Ekeomah Atuonwu
According to a record of a cabinet meeting obtained on Saturday, Kinshasa has condemned the shooting of one of its emigrants by a white US police officer over two weeks ago.
Patrick Lyoya, a 26-year-old whose family apparently relocated to the United States in 2014 to escape the DRC’s civil war, was slain by a white police officer during a traffic check in Grand Rapids, Michigan on April 4.
He became the latest in a long line of black people killed by police in the United States, sparking huge anti-racism protests and calls for reform.
According to the minutes of the conference, DR Congo Prime Minister Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde “strongly condemned the cowardly assassination by a white police officer in the United States of a citizen of Congolese ancestry Patrick Lyoya, unarmed, during a traffic check.”
“His sincere regrets and his government’s condolences following this disgusting conduct,” he added, adding that the US ambassador in DR Congo has expressed “his deep regrets and his government’s condolences.”
Four videos from the event have been released by US police, one of which shows the officer — who has not been identified — lying on top of Lyoya during a scuffle and then shooting him in the head.
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