GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Patrick Lyoya’s father was in Washington D.C. Wednesday as President Joe Biden signed an executive order for police reform.
Peter Lyoya and Israel Siku, the interpreter for Lyoya’s family, attended the signing on the second anniversary of the death of George Floyd.
The executive order “will increase accountability, ban chokeholds, restrict no-knock entries, and more for federal law enforcement officers — and it incentivizes state and local officers to do the same,” Biden said in a tweet.
It creates a national database of officers fired for misconduct, requires federal departments to update use of force policies, bans federal officers from using choke holds unless deadly force is needed, restricts military-grade equipment used by police and limits federal agents use of no-knock warrants.
The president signed the executive order after negotiations on reform broke down in the Senate in front of a group of families with loved ones killed by the hands of police, including the family of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor’s mom.
Lyoya’s family was invited by the White House to attend along with attorney Ben Crump, according to a Facebook post by Kent County Commissioner Robert Womack.
— News 8’s Kyle Mitchell contributed to this report.