A Michigan police chief thought he’d found the city where he would put down roots after decades in law enforcement, but he said on Thursday that harassment from anti-cop agitators halted those dreams.
Grand Rapids Police Department (GRPD) Chief Eric Winstrom told Grand Rapids-based WOOD TV 8 that he would be taking a $25,000 pay cut to become the chief of police in Pensacola, Florida, after four years in his position. Winstrom said that after a police-involved shooting a month after he took the job in 2022, the “vitriol” started, and eventually proved to be too much. (RELATED: Democrat Mayor Says Gun Owners Should Be ‘Ashamed’).
“I got a lot of love from a lot of people, but I got a lot of vitriol, a lot of anger, not necessarily for Eric Winstrom, but for this uniform I wear,” Winstrom told the Grand Rapids-area station.
WATCH:
When he became chief of GRPD four years ago, Eric Winstrom had hoped to stay long enough to retire from the job. But he says hatred toward police from what he describes as a small but vocal segment of the community helped drive him out: https://t.co/rarpcbbLHr pic.twitter.com/ygXt3ATSBc
— WOOD TV8 (@WOODTV) February 26, 2026
In April 2022, Patrick Lyoya was killed by a GRPD officer in a scuffle during a traffic stop. The officer was indicted on murder charges, but a jury deadlocked in May 2025, with at least ten jurors voting to acquit the officer.
After the shooting, Winstrom said his dream job turned into a nightmare for him and his family.
“Very quickly, everyone in the city knew where I lived; people were not shy to drive by and lean on their horn and scream obscenities at me or at the house,” Winstrom told WOOD TV, later adding, “I remember the day that my son went out in the driveway and saw ‘Abolish the police’ spray painted in red on my driveway, and he came back in, ‘Dad, I think somebody bad did something to the house.’”
“My daughter at time, who was probably 8, we were walking through a grocery store together in town and was accosted by a woman who pretty much got in my face and started screaming at me, ‘Justice for Patrick,’” Winstrom continued, after observing he was handling a “big city police job in a midsized city.”
The police chief’s tenure in Grand Rapids is coming to a close with another deadly police-involved shooting. During a regularly-scheduled “Mayor Monday” forum that took place after the deadly police shooting of Da-Quain Johnson on Feb. 18, Democratic Mayor David LaGrand of Grand Rapids called for shaming gun owners and also questioned the department’s use of dogs. (RELATED: Left-Wing Karen Says ‘I Don’t Care’ When ICE Agent Explains They’re Pursuing Murderous Child-Rapist)
“It is time that we ask, what are dogs good for. Like if you need a dog to find someone in the woods, go get a hound dog,” LaGrand said. “If you need to chase somebody in [a] backyard why couldn’t you do that with a drone? If my dog did what I saw in that video, I’d put my dog down.”
Protesters flooded the city after both the Lyoya shooting and the 2020 death of George Floyd in police custody. Activists pushed to rename a Grand Rapids street after Breonna Taylor, a Grand Rapids native killed in a shootout after her boyfriend fired on police officers serving a warrant.
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