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Cop Allegedly "Stood There Whining And Moaning" After Killing Innocent Man In Brooklyn Stairwell
By
Max Rivlin-Nadler
Published Jan 26, 2016
Modified Jan 26, 2016
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By
Max Rivlin-Nadler
Published Jan 26, 2016
Modified Jan 26, 2016
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The trial of Peter Liang, the NYPD officer who shot and killed 28-year-old Akai Gurley in the dark stairwell of a Brooklyn NYCHA building in November of 2014, began on Monday morning, marking the first time an NYPD officer has been put on trial for killing a civilian since 2008.
Liang fatally shot Gurley in November of 2014 while patrolling the Pink Houses in East New York. Both the defense and the prosecution agree that the shooting was accidental.
Yet in charging Officer Liang with second-degree manslaughter, along with with reckless endangerment, the prosecution argued that he “violated his training” and “showed indifference to Gurley as he lay dying.”
"Instead of doing all he could, Liang didn't call for help, he stood there whining and moaning," said Brooklyn Assistant District Attorney Marc Fliedner, who pointed at the solemn Liang throughout his opening statement.
The several minutes that Gurley lay dying with a bullet wound to his chest in the NYCHA stairwell, Liang never alerted other officers that a shooting had taken place.
“When [his partner] urged him to call in the shooting, Liang cared only about himself,” Fliedner said.
According to the prosecution, after Liang fired the shot, his partner, Officer Shaun Landau, asked him, “What the fuck was that?”
Liang allegedly answered that he had shot the gun accidentally, before adding, “I am fired."
Gurley, a father to a two-year-old daughter, was pronounced dead at Brookdale Hospital. Following the shooting, NYPD commissioner Bill Bratton called Gurley a “total innocent.”
Akai Gurley's aunt, Hortencia Peterson, reads a letter written to her slain nephew outside the courthouse yesterday (Gothamist)
In a packed courtroom, with a crowd of over fifty people waiting in the hallway outside—most of them Gurley supporters—Judge Danny Chun reminded the young, almost entirely white jury to refrain from seeking out any media or information about the trial, which is expected to last a little over two weeks.
The defense was clearly concerned that the charged atmosphere resulting from a series of non-indictments of police officers involved in the deaths of black men, including Eric Garner, would influence the jury’s decision.
“The NYPD is not on trial,” defense counsel Rae Koshetz told the jury in her opening statement. “This is not a referendum on policing.”
Koshetz added, “As Martin Luther King famously said, an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind.”
Not only has Liang dismissed his Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association-appointed lawyers in favor of his own defense team, but his partner, Shaun Landau, will possibly be one of the main witnesses for the prosecution.
The PBA, which traditionally turns out in force at any criminal proceedings stemming from police misconduct, like the one following the 2006 police shooting of Sean Bell, were mostly absent yesterday, save for a few scattered members.
A motion by the prosecution to enter the murder weapon into evidence during opening statements was objected to by the defense, a signal that Liang’s attorneys would try to blame the shooting on a faulty trigger. They insist that their client was in a state of shock after the incident, and was unable to assist the dying man due to his emotional state.
PBA attorneys would most likely not have pursued a defense that was based on evidence of a faulty trigger, as it would cast doubt on the safety of the guns all NYPD officers carry. The prosecution stressed that NYPD guns are modified to require a higher amount of force to pull a trigger than the ones that are sold to civilians.
“The gun fired because Liang pulled the trigger,” said ADA Fliedner, who dramatically reenacted Liang’s indifference to the man he shot, at one point kneeling down in front of the jury.
Liang shot his weapon downward into the dark stairwell, hitting Gurley, who was entering the stairwell a floor below. Liang didn’t know he had shot Gurley until the two officers came across the bloody scene minutes later, having spent the time that Gurley was dying arguing over whether to alert superiors that Liang had fired his weapon.
When they went to see where the bullet had hit, they found Gurley being given CPR by his girlfriend, Melissa Butler.
By then, Melissa Lopez, a resident of the NYCHA building where Gurley was shot, had called 911. The tape of her call was played in court, as she relayed to the EMS technician that although the police officers were present, they were not assisting in performing CPR on the dying Gurley.
“The Asian officer was doing nothing the whole time,” Lopez testified in court.
Butler had knocked on Lopez’s door after Gurley was wounded. “Neither of the police officers assisted the entire time,” Lopez testified.
Butler can be heard saying “He’s not breathing,” in the background of the 911 call. Gurley’s aunt, Hertencia Peterson, cried and shielded her face as the conversation was played for the jury.
As the trial recessed for lunch, supporters of the Gurley family struggled to secure a space on the snow-covered sidewalk for an impromptu press conference.
“You will never have the opportunity to be a father to your daughters, who will continue to ask, why did the policeman kill my daddy?” Peterson told the crowd of reporters in a letter to her slain nephew. “Our family reunion is coming up, and your presence will be missed. Yes, your life mattered, and you’re forever in our hearts.”
The judge has scheduled final arguments for February 8.
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Akai Gurley
Peter Liang
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Max Rivlin-Nadler
Max Rivlin-Nadler has been a contributor to Gothamist since 2013. He has also reported for the New York Times, NPR, and The Intercept. His years-long investigation into New York City's arcane civil forfeiture laws led to a series of reforms which altered a practice that had been taking millions from poor communities for decades. Recently, he brought back a surfing habit from a few years on the west coast, and would love to see you all out in the Rockaways.
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