Hundreds attend funeral for man hit by unmarked cruiser

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Hundreds gathered at Browns Funeral Home in Grand Rapids Saturday to say their final goodbyes to 25-year-old Samuel Sterling.

Friends and family entered the funeral home around 10 a.m. and the funeral started at 11 a.m. After the service, his family released doves. Robert Hurd, a deacon at the Messiah Baptist Church, said the entire community is grieving from Sterling’s death.

“I know that that young man had a lot of living to do. And all of us have made mistakes in life. And the whole purpose of criminal and the criminal justice system is for people to have a second chance and get an opportunity to do better, but they can’t do better if they’re killed unjustly,” Hurd said.

Sterling, who died last week, was wanted on outstanding warrants and ran away when police found him in Kentwood on April 17, the Michigan State Police said. That chase ended when he was hit by an unmarked MSP cruiser in the parking lot of a nearby Burger King.

On Friday, security footage was shown during a press conference put on by Sterling’s family and their attorneys.

Attorneys release video of deadly cruiser crash

Community members said the fight for justice for Sterling and his family does not stop here.

“It’s something that we don’t want our community to be more outraged about. So we would hope that our city and our city officials in the MSP would come forward even to shine (a) light on giving some comfort to this family,” Reginald Howard, a friend of the Sterling family, said.

Mark Totten, the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Michigan, said in a statement Friday that they are monitoring the state’s investigation on Sterling’s death. The name of the detective sergeant who hit Sterling has not been released, that person has been suspended.

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