New York City has agreed to pay more than $4 million to settle a wrongful death lawsuit with the family of Akai Gurley, who was fatally shot by a city police officer in the stairwell of a housing project in the city’s Brooklyn borough, the New York Post reports.
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The City of NY will have to pay over US$4.1 million in a wrongful death settlement to the family of Akai Gurley, according to a family lawyer, the Daily News reported Monday.
A city Law Department spokesman called the settlement a “fair resolution of a tragic matter”.
Former NYPD officer Peter Liang was convicted of second-degree manslaughter and official misconduct in the Gurley shooting this February, catalyzing protest from Chinese-American New Yorkers who argued that Liang had been scapegoated.
Liang was expelled from the police force and sentenced to five years of probation and 800 hours of community service.
The settlement was reached in the presence of Judge Dawn Jimenez-Salta in Brooklyn Supreme Court after two months of negotiations.
“I’m glad it’s all done. I’m pleased with the outcome”, Ballinger told the tabloid Monday.
Gurley’s death had taken place amidst strong protests in the country after the police had killed two black men, Eric Garner in NY and Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Liang said he fired the shot accidentally. More than 10,000 of his backers rallied in NY and across the US after the verdict, protesting his conviction.
Liang was patrolling the darkened stairwell of a high-rise housing project in Brooklyn which his weapon drawn when he fired.
At trial, Liang testified that a sudden noise startled him, causing his finger to slip onto the trigger and fire.
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Rynecki said that the mother of Gurley’s 3-year-old daughter, Akaila, was also pleased to be able to move forward from the case.
