In his arraignment in a Brooklyn courtroom, Peter Liang, 27, also pleaded not guilty to other felony charges including criminally negligent homicide and second-degree assault, and misdemeanor charges of reckless endangerment and official misconduct.
On Nov. 20, while Liang and his partner were performing a “vertical patrol” of the Pink Houses in East New York he entered a darkened stairwell with his gun in one hand and a flashlight in the other. As he opened the door to the stairwell, he fired a shot that ricocheted off a wall and struck resident Akai Gurley, 28, who was in the stairwell one floor below, in the chest.
Brooklyn district attorney Kenneth P. Thompson told reporters that “there are no winners here,” explaining that he did not believe Liang intended to kill Gurley. “But he had his finger on the trigger, and he fired the gun.”
Liang’s attorney, Stephen C. Worth called the prosecution's version of events a “contorted theory.”
— Ross Barkan (@RossBarkan) February 11, 2015
Of particular interest to prosecutors are the minutes immediately following the shot. The officers went back out of the stairwell as Gurley fled down two flights before collapsing. The officers then argued about calling in the shot, and reportedly failed to answer calls from commanding officers who had been alerted to 911 calls made by neighbors.
“Officer Liang during that discussion with his partner refused to call in the shot while they were on the eighth floor,” said.
Though Gurley’s death often received attention along with other police killings of unarmed black men by police, Thompson was careful to distance from any wider political agenda.
"This case has nothing to do with Ferguson or Eric Garner or any other case,” he said, referring to the death of Michael Brown, 18, at the hands of police in Missouri in August and to that of Eric Garner, 43, after he was placed in a chokehold by NYPD officers who stopped him for selling loose cigarettes in July.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio released a brief statement Tuesday in response to the indictment. "No matter the specific charges, this case is an unspeakable tragedy for the Gurley family. We urge everyone to respect the judicial process as it unfolds."
— Patrick Hedlund (@patrickhedlund) February 10, 2015
