Deliberations resumed Thursday at the trial of Officer Peter Liang (lee-ANG’).
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The officer’s supporters have said Liang, who is Chinese American, is being made a scapegoat for previous injustices. Gurley’s family embraced and sobbed.
Liang, a rookie cop at the time, was on patrol inside a Brooklyn public housing project with his partner and drew his gun upon entering a pitch-black stairwell. His defence team said the shooting was an accident, not a crime.
When he is sentenced April 14, Officer Liang could be imprisoned for up to 15 years.
Jurors deliberated Thursday morning, through a one-hour lunch break and into the evening.
Liang is the first NYPD officer that has been put on trial for killing a civilian since 2008, and the first NYPD officer to be found guilty of killing a civilian in decades.
Prosecutors say Liang was reckless and did little to help the dying victim.
Liang was also convicted of official misconduct.
“He went to the stairwell to find the shell casing, to keep this quiet”. Liang thought he might get fired.
At trial, Liang, 28, testified that a sudden noise startled him, causing his finger to slip onto the trigger and fire the gun. The bullet ricocheted off a wall and hit 28-year-old Akai (ah-KEYE’) Gurley on a lower floor. Earlier, they had reheard testimony from Liang and other witnesses.
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“Oh my god, someone’s hit”, a tearful Liang recalled saying upon finding a bleeding Gurley lying on a landing, as his girlfriend frantically tried to revive him.
