Liang, 28, will be sentenced April 14.
Advertisement
Liang, a Chinese-American rookie officer, is one of the few officers who has been held accountable for killing an unarmed Black civilian in the recent spate of fatal police brutality incidents in the United States.
Eric Garner, 43, died after NY police put him in a chokehold, while Michael Brown, 18, was fatally shot by a white police officer in the St Louis suburb of Ferguson, Missouri. “Criminal charges appeared more likely in the later two cases, but these two non-Asian police officers were never charged”.
Police Officer Peter Liang, center, exits the courtroom during a break in closing arguments in his trial on charges in the shooting death of Akai Gurley, Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2016, at Brooklyn Supreme court in NY.
After news of the shooting came out, New York City Police Commissioner Bill Bratton was quick to say the shooting was an accident and admitted that Gurley was “total innocent”.
This afternoon, NYPD Officer Peter Liang was found guilty by a jury of manslaughter.
“Instead of shining a light, he pointed his gun and shot Akai Gurley”, prosecutor Joe Alexis said in his closing argument.
The casket of Akai Gurley at Brown is seen during his funeral service at the Brown Memorial Baptist Church on December 6, 2014 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. Gurley’s girlfriend says she was trying to keep her boyfriend alive as Liang stopped briefly before continuing on his way down the stairs.
“I was panicking. I was in shock, in disbelief that someone was actually hit”, Liang said at trial.
Such was not the case for Liang, who was sacked by the police department immediately upon his conviction.
The night of November 20, 2014, Liang and his partner were patrolling the Pink Houses in East New York. He faces 15 years in prison.
Jurors deliberated Thursday morning, through a one-hour lunch break and into the evening. Liang faced trial in Brooklyn on five counts in the death of 28-year-old Akai Gurley: manslaughter, assault, reckless endangerment, criminally negligent homicide and official misconduct. After entering a dimly lit staircase, Liang fired his gun the same time as Gurley and his girlfriend Melissa Butler entered from a higher floor.
They also emphasized the dangers of so-called “vertical patrols”, a point that was underscored when two officers were shot this month when conducting a similar patrol in a Bronx public housing building.
The law empowers police officers to use deadly force when they reasonably fear for their safety or the safety of others, with the understanding that they must sometimes make split-second life-or-death decisions not to be casually second-guessed or criminalized.
But prosecutors argued Liang fired toward the sound deliberately and that he must have known only another person could have caused the noise that surprised him.
Liang was convicted of manslaughter and official misconduct in connection with the death of 28-year-old Akai Gurley.
Advertisement
Jurors delivered their verdict Thursday in Officer Peter Liang’s (lee-ANGZ) trial. He said he thought it would be better to wait for professional aid.
