A rookie NYPD officer “accidentally” shot and killed
an unarmed African-American man in a staircase in a New York apartment
block. It happened as Ferguson is tensely waiting for a grand jury
decision on a police officer who shot Michael Brown.
Akai Gurley, 28, and his
girlfriend Melissa Butler were entering a staircase on the
seventh floor in Pink House project in Brooklyn late Thursday
evening when two policemen came down from the eighth floor. Peter
Liang and his partner, Shaun Landau were doing a top-to-bottom
patrol. Liang, a rookie on probationary assignment, fired a shot
in Gurley’s chest without a warning, Butler said.
“They didn’t present themselves or nothing and shot
him,” Butler told DNAinfo New York. “As soon as he came
in, the police opened the [door to the] eighth-floor staircase.
They didn’t identify themselves at all. They just shot.”
Gurley and Butler tried to go down the stairs but reached only
the fifth floor where Gurley lost consciousness. There a neighbor
called an ambulance. Butler says the policemen did not come to
help nor called the ambulance. Gurley, who has a 2-year-old son,
was pronounced dead on arrival to hospital.
An NYPD spokesperson said the police department's internal
affairs bureau is investigating the shooting. Liang has been
placed on modified assignment and was relieved of both his badge
and gun.
The police are collecting information from witnesses and radio
reports without talking to Liang as according to the policy, he
will be interrogated in the District Attorney’s office first and
then by internal affairs officers.
"What happened last night was a very unfortunate
tragedy,'' police commissioner Bill Bratton said in a
statement. "The deceased is totally innocent. He just
happened to be in the hallway. He was not engaged in any criminal
activity.''
Bratton said it probably was an accidental discharge of weapon.
“So here’s an unarmed, black 28 year old in the
stairwell,” former City Councilmember Charles Barron said as
quoted by CBS New York. “Two officers, one Asian, one white,
fully armed. He’s unarmed, they meet on the stairwell and he
winds up dead with a bullet in his chest. I want to hear the
justification for this one. Don’t tell me the hallway was dimly
lit. That’s no reason to kill a black man on a stairwell.”
The incident happened while a grand jury decision concerning
Michael Brown’s death is awaited. Unarmed 18-year-old Michael
Brown was shot and killed in Ferguson by police officer Darren
Wilson in August. The shooting caused riots in the area and
tensions between police and the African-American community.
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