“He murdered my son:” Family of man killed by police vehicle sees video for first time

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – The parents of Samuel Sterling, who was struck and killed by a state trooper’s unmarked car, were outraged and heartbroken as they watched bodycam video.

“He murdered my son — from what I saw it was no accident,” Michael Sterling Sr. told MLive/The Grand Rapids Press on Friday, May 10.

He and Sterling’s mother, Andrica Cage, were shown Friday 15 minutes of police bodycam video of their son’s April 17 death.

The 25-year-old, who police said was wanted on outstanding warrants, was on the run from a police fugitive squad when he was caught in the Burger King parking lot on Eastern Avenue SE near 52nd Street The police officer’s marked car was hit.

Cage said the officer and others showed indifference toward her son, who later died of internal injuries at the hospital. She heard laughter on the video.

“I saw him not giving my son any help after he begged for help,” she said.

State Police Director Col. James Grady II met with the Sterling family, along with attorney Ven Johnson and former Kent County Commissioner Robert Womack, to view the video before it was released publicly.

Grady told the family that he suspended the officer without pay early on after watching the video. The parents and others expect that the undercover police officer will face criminal charges.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office is reviewing evidence and police reports.

State police released a “representative sample” of videos from task force officers from three agencies: state police, Grand Rapids police and Wyoming police.

It includes footage from three body-worn cameras and a car camera. The unmarked vehicle that struck Sterling was not equipped with a camera because the trooper was working with the federal task force. Due to his assignment, he did not have a body-worn camera.

“As director of the Michigan State Police, I assure the Sterling and Cage families and the communities we serve that we will continue to be transparent in this investigation and will cooperate fully with the Michigan Attorney General’s Office as they begin their review,” Grady said in a statement.

He said the Michigan State Police Troopers Association contract prohibits the release of names or personnel records unless they are accused of a crime.

Related: Lawyer: Release police video showing a police officer’s car hitting and killing a fleeing suspect

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said Sterling’s death was unacceptable.

“Given the video footage showing a departure from MSP protocols and the department’s high standards, I expect the state of Michigan will take steps to terminate the trooper’s employment if criminal charges are filed.”

The officer involved was “heartbroken” and “wants the family to know that he had no intention of intentionally harming Mr. Sterling,” Norton Shores attorney Marc Curtis previously said.

Related: State trooper who beat and killed Samuel Sterling died ‘heartbroken’, lawyer says

The video appears to show the police SUV driving toward Sterling in the Burger King parking lot. He appeared to be pinned against the building and then fell to the ground as the vehicle reversed.

He moaned throughout the entire ordeal.

Police asked him to put his hands behind his back and held him while he searched for weapons.

“Don’t let him grab anything,” an officer said.

“I don’t have a gun,” Sterling says.

“Why did you hit me like that?”

Police told him to “just relax.” They searched his pockets and partially turned him over.

“Where did you hurt yourself?”

“My whole body.”

“Can you move?”

“No,” Sterling says.

Related: “That was my baby,” says the mother of a wanted man who was fatally struck by an unmarked police car

Officers placed him on his back before firefighters arrived. He complained of his back and had difficulty breathing. The police told him not to move.

The video suggests police did not realize the severity of Sterling’s injuries. An officer told firefighters that he was “pinned to a wall” and was conscious, mobile and moving on the ground.

The officer says Sterling’s handcuffs have to stay on because he was looking for a violent offender.

“Did he get pushed?” asked a firefighter. “Did the car push him into the building or was he actually trapped by the vehicle and the building?”

“Both,” says an official.

Sterling’s family is expected to file a civil lawsuit.

The parents are convinced that the officer – a detective, they said – intentionally drove at their son and pushed him against the restaurant. They said they couldn’t believe the indifference towards their son.

“His injuries didn’t matter,” the father said.

Womack, an attorney for the Sterling family and others including the family of Patrick Lyoya, 26, who was shot by a Grand Rapids police officer during a violent traffic stop on April 4, 2022, said it was difficult to listen to Sterling moan in pain, while police searched Sterling and handcuffed him.

“No empathy, no concern, not a single official,” he said. “They had no human connection at all. … That was shocking.”

Womack said Sterling joined a list of black men who have died at the hands of police violence. He called for civil and criminal sanctions to “stop police officers from acting as judge, jury and executioner on the streets.”

Sterling’s mother said he likely ran because, as an aspiring rapper, singer and entertainer, he had a big gig in Detroit this week. He had called her the night before his death and told her about it.

“The next day he was gone.”

Court records show Sterling was wanted for a probation violation. He fled when police saw him putting air in his tires at a gas station near Burger King.

Court records show he was convicted in 2021 of carrying a concealed weapon, misdemeanor possession of a firearm and theft of a financial transaction device. In October 2021, he was sentenced to 210 days in prison and three years of probation.

He had already been convicted of car theft in 2017.

In May 2022, an arrest warrant was issued for violating his probation.

Grand Rapids District Court records also show an arrest warrant was issued in March 2023 for failure to obey a lawful order of a police officer.

Sterling had two sons of his own, Poppy (3) and Zyleek (2).

“I’m angry, hurt, angry, frustrated,” his father said. His mother said: “You never know until it happens because it can happen to anyone, to any child.”

His parents said they had to watch the video. They had to know what had happened. They never expected that. They remembered caring for their son as a young boy and never wanting anything bad to happen to him.

Watching him die on the street was too much, they said.