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Lawyers For Cop Who Shot Innocent Man In Stairwell Try To Discredit Partner's Testimony
By
Max Rivlin-Nadler
Published Feb 5, 2016
Modified Feb 5, 2016
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By
Max Rivlin-Nadler
Published Feb 5, 2016
Modified Feb 5, 2016
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Earlier this week, the partner of NYPD Officer Peter Liang, who is on trial for fatally shooting an innocent man in a Brooklyn stairwell, told the jury that the two had argued for around four minutes while 28-year-old Akai Gurley lay dying.
“He pulled my phone out of my hand and tried to call the sergeant. I took the phone back and hung up,” Officer Shaun Landau testified in Brooklyn Supreme Court on Tuesday.
Yet on cross-examination by Liang’s attorney yesterday, Officer Landau admitted that in December 2014, he told the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office a different story.
“Do you remember telling ADA Fliedner and ADA Alexis that it took 30-40 seconds back in that hallway?” defense attorney Robert Brown asked Landau.
“I do not recall,” Landau answered. When asked to review the transcript of his statement, Landau agreed that he had said there had only been 30-40 seconds in the hallway.
“You heard Officer Liang say on the radio that a police officer had been involved in a shooting,” defense attorney Robert Brown told Landau, referring to a transcript from an NYPD interrogation done only days after the shooting.
“Yes,” Landau admitted, contradicting his earlier testimony, when he claimed Liang never alerted their superiors.
Landau also testified that as both officers were driven in an ambulance to Jamaica Hospital, Officer Liang was distraught and that his mental condition deteriorated rapidly after finding out that Gurley had been shot.
Landau, who seemed at times unsteady and frustrated on the stand, concluded his testimony by declaring that he was completely confident that he heard office Liang say, “I’m fired,” in the moments after the shot rang out into the stairwell at the Pink Houses.
The defense claimed that Liang could have easily been saying, “I fired,” referring to the gun.
“There‘s no doubt in my mind that what he said was, ‘I’m going to be fired,’” Landau testified.
Peter Liang, shortly after he was indicted last year (Getty Images)
The jury also heard testimony from a Kings County Medical Examiner who performed the autopsy on Gurley. A photo of Gurley’s face, with his mouth slightly open and the stress of his violent death etched on his face, was shown to the court, while Gurley’s mother shielded her face.
The prosecution’s final witness was an investigator for the DA’s office who attempted to use the 911 call from the night of the shooting to prove at least three minutes elapsed after Liang fired his weapon until the officers found Gurley on the fifth floor landing. This would validate Landau’s original testimony in court on Wednesday.
Landau has been given immunity in the case in exchange for testifying, but still faces a $50 million lawsuit from Kimberly Ballinger, Gurley’s domestic partner.
The defense began its case on Thursday afternoon, after a motion to dismiss all charges was rejected by Judge Danny Chun. Liang’s attorneys presented three witnesses who were present on the night of the shooting, and each agreed that Officer Liang was in serious distress after he fired his weapon, in an attempt to prove that he was incapable of administering CPR to Gurley.
Court began Friday morning with a new wrinkle in the trial: Thursday night, two NYPD officers were shot during a vertical patrol in a NYCHA development in the south Bronx. Liang and Landau were performing a similar patrol when Liang shot Gurley in November of 2014.
This morning the prosecution moved to bar the defense from mentioning Thursday night’s shooting, while the defense maintained that it was critically important to the trial. The defense is trying to establish that officer Liang’s life was in danger while patrolling the Pink Houses, and that having his gun drawn was not out of the ordinary for an officer on a vertical patrol.
Judge Chun granted the prosecution’s request to bar the defense from mentioning yesterday’s shooting, and cautioned jurors to, as always, avoid media coverage of this case, including articles that “might have parts of this case intertwined in it.”
The defense has one final witness to call: Peter Liang. On Monday, Liang, who is charged with second-degree manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, second-degree assault, will testify in his own defense. By giving Liang the last word before his judgement, the defense is hoping for leniency and understanding from the jury.
Closing arguments are scheduled for Tuesday, with a verdict most likely coming before next Friday.
Tagged
Akai Gurley
Peter Liang
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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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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