Death certificate: Man hit by unmarked cruiser had ‘multiple blunt force injuries’

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — The death certificate for a man who was hit by an unmarked police cruiser last week indicates he sustained “multiple blunt force injuries” and died about five hours after the crash.

The death certificate for Samuel Sterling, 25, of Grand Rapids, indicates he was a “pedestrian struck by a vehicle.” The document says the crash happened around 11:25 a.m. on April 17 and his time of death was listed as 4:15 p.m.

The manner of death is listed as “accident.”

The medical examiner who conducted the autopsy was out of town and unavailable for comment Wednesday, according to Lori Latham, assistant county administrator in Kent County.

Latham noted that the accident ruling “does not preclude the prosecutor from pursuing a case if warranted by the evidence and applicable law.”

Michigan State Police say they were looking for Sterling because he had outstanding felony warrants. They found him at a gas station near the intersection of 52nd Street and Eastern Avenue in Kentwood. They say when they approached, Sterling ran away. Several officers chased him on foot and an MSP detective sergeant in an unmarked vehicle “drove parallel to him,” the MSP director said in a statement last week . Sterling and the officers ended up in the parking lot of a nearby Burger King. That’s where the unmarked cruiser hit Sterling , police say. He was rushed to the hospital, where he died.

“It’s not no accident. It would never be an accident,” said his mother, Andrica Cage. “He just was a really loving, caring little boy. … My son was a star. He brought a lot of brightness to this world.”

The detective sergeant who was driving the unmarked car has been suspended while the crash is under investigation.

Sterling’s family members say they want answers and they want to see any video MSP has showing what happened.

“We need to know, what’s so accidental? We need to see the video. We need to see what they saw. Justice. For Samuel. Show the video. What’s the officer’s name?” Samuel Sterling’s cousin Jermar Sterling said Wednesday.

“It was senseless to me,” Sterling’s father Michael Sterling previously told News 8 . “For a couple little warrants, they didn’t have to go this extreme of running him down. He didn’t cause no threat.”

Famed civil rights attorney Ben Crump has been engaged to represent the family, working with Michigan attorney Ven Johnson, Johnson confirmed to News 8. Crump and Johnson are also representing the family of Patrick Lyoya , who was killed by a Grand Rapids police officer in 2022. The manner of death for Lyoya, who was shot in the head, was listed as homicide on his death certificate. The officer in that case has been charged with murder.

Samuel Sterling was a father of two young sons and a rapper, his family said. His mother recalled a beautiful dimpled smile.

“He ain’t never going to be able come back home. I ain’t never be able to hold him,” Andrica Cage told News 8, crying. “I’ll never be able to do anything for my baby. Nothing. I’ll never get that that call again: ‘Mom, I love you; listen to this music; Mom, I’m here for you anytime; we’re going to get big, we going to move up out of here.’”

Sterling’s funeral is scheduled for 11 a.m. Saturday at Brown’s Funeral Home in Grand Rapids, preceded by a friends and family hour starting at 10 a.m.

A GoFundMe account has been organized to help cover cremation expenses and to support the family.

—Target 8 investigator Susan Samples contributed to this report.

*Correction: A previous version of this article misspelled Jermar Sterling’s first name. We regret the error, which has been fixed.

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