Rookie Cop From Bensonhurst Indicted In Akai Gurley Slaying
The rookie cop accused in the shooting death of an unarmed man, Akai Gurly, has been charged with second degree manslaughter and five other charges, according to prosecutors.
Officer Peter Liang, who is from Bensonhurst, had reportedly been on the force just 18 months when he fired his revolver into a dark stairwell of an East New York apartment building on November 20 during a routine patrol, and his bullet ricocheted, killing the 28-year-old father of two. Prosecutors say that Officer Liang retreated from the scene and did not immediately report the shooting. Then, later, they say he stood over Gurley’s body without performing CPR.
Officer Liang, who pleaded not guilty, did not testify at the grand jury hearing last week, but Gurley’s girlfriend and a woman who was with him in the stairwell both did, a law enforcement source told the New York Post. Commissioner Bill Bratton, police unions, and the mayor have called the shooting an accident, while the family of Gurley have demanded a homicide indictment.
Media outlets caught photos of a solemn looking Officer Liang leaving his Bensonhurst home Wednesday to accept his arraignment at the Kings County Supreme Court.
The conviction stands in contrast to a Staten Island grand jury’s failure to convict an officer in the choking death of father Eric Garner, which sparked intense protests throughout New York City. Brooklyn District Attorney Kenneth Thompson has been praised for securing an indictment.
“Shortly after the tragic death of Akai Gurley in a stairwell of the Louis H. Pink Houses in East New York, Brooklyn, I promised to conduct a full and fair investigation to get to the bottom of what happened that night. I can now report that the District Attorney’s Office has completed a thorough investigation into this matter,” Thompson said in a statement.
Officer Liang is the second cop from our area to be at the center of a high profile tragedy recently. Last month, we mourned the death of Officer Wenjian Liu, who was shot dead with his partner Officer Rafael Ramos outside a Brooklyn housing project, and was from Gravesend. The fact that both were Asian, signifies an increased presence of Asian American cops in the police force, where they were once an extreme minority, the New York Times has noted.
Officer Liang faces a single count each of second-degree manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, second degree assault, and reckless endangerment, and two counts of official misconduct, with the top charge carrying a 15-year prison sentence. He has been released without bail.