TL;DR Summary: Cop doing patrol in housing project. Doesn't use proper trigger control. Fires blindly into stairwell by accident. Kills a man. Is indicted for second degree manslaughter.
Original thread (when it happened):
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=937702
Indictment thread:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=989507
Now that the indictment is official, some are seeing it as NYPD finally being called to task and not getting away with murder. Others are claiming that it is simply racial scapegoating and that the only reason this officer is being made to account for his actions is because he's Chinese.
Full story:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/23/n...on=Footer&module=MoreInSection&pgtype=article
Original thread (when it happened):
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=937702
Indictment thread:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=989507
http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/201...il&utm_term=0_7260a5da5b-0e8d248c3b-132474733
The officer who fatally shot Akai Gurley in the in the stairwell of an East New York housing project last year did nothing for four minutes while Gurley bled to death, prosecutors said Wednesday.
The stunning news was revealed as Officer Peter Liang pleaded not guilty to manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, assault, reckless endangerment and official misconduct during the hearing on the indictment at Brooklyn Supreme Court.
Prosecutors also revealed that the shot that hit Gurley ricocheted off the concrete wall and hit the victim in the chest.
[...]
On the evening of his death, Gurley was visiting his girlfriend Melissa Butler, 27, at the housing at 2724 Linden Blvd. The two waited for an elevator and when it didn't come they decided to take the stairs, Butler told DNAinfo in November.
Liang, who faces up to 15 years in prison on the top charge, was conducting a vertical patrol with his gun drawn when he fired a single shot from a landing above the seventh floor, striking Gurley in the chest, the NYPD said.
Prosecutors said Liang was holding a flashlight in one hand and a gun in the other and used his shoulder to push open the door into the stairwell.
As the door opened, he accidentally pulled the trigger of the gun while it was aimed down the stairwell, prosecutors said.
The round ricocheted off a concrete wall and landed in Gurley's chest.
Prosecutors said Liang fired his weapon, but didn't follow the sound of people scrambling down the stairs to check to see what had happened.
Rather, he retreated back into the 8th floor hallway where he stood for four minutes, refusing to call in the incident while arguing with his partner.
"He did not render aid, he did not perform CPR and he still did not use his police radio to report what was going on," said Marc Fliedner, the prosecutor at the hearing.
Instead Liang worried, "I'm going to be fired for this," according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors said they found no proof that Liang had texted his union representative after firing the shot, only evidence that the two officers had argued for at least four minutes.
When Liang finally walked down to the lower level, Gurley's girlfriend was trying to revive him and a neighbor was talking to paramedics on the phone; Liang still did nothing.
It took at least 10 minutes for an ambulance to arrive.
The evidence will show that they did not render medical assistance to Mr. Gurley as they were trained to do in the police academy," Thompson said. "They were trained to give CPR.
Now that the indictment is official, some are seeing it as NYPD finally being called to task and not getting away with murder. Others are claiming that it is simply racial scapegoating and that the only reason this officer is being made to account for his actions is because he's Chinese.
New York Times said:We dont want to be pushed around anymore, or picked on anymore, Mr. Gim said. Were going to fight back.
Mr. Gim and his lunchmates first met on WeChat after the death of Officer Wenjian Liu, who was shot in December. Now they are reaching out to the Chinese-language press, contacting lawyers to advise Officer Liang and planning a protest march in New York, a city with the largest Chinese population outside of Asia. An online petition opposing the indictment that was started in California by a member of the Chinese-American community has garnered more than 100,000 signatures.
New York Times said:Peter Liang being Asian only means that all cops need to be held accountable, regardless of skin color, said Cathy Dang, the executive director of CAAAV Organizing Asian Communities, an advocacy group in New York that works with Asian immigrants from several countries. We should use this indictment as fuel for us to organize even harder to hold the white officers whove killed accountable.
Councilwoman Margaret Chin, a Democrat who represents the Chinatown neighborhood, also called for Officer Liang to be indicted, saying the filing of charges would be a step toward reforming a police force that she said has unfairly targeted Asians as well as blacks and Latinos.
New York Times said:In some ways, Officer Liangs case seems all too easy to slice along racial lines. Like Mr. Gurley, the shooting victim, the Brooklyn district attorney, Kenneth P. Thompson, is black; the judge who oversaw the officers arraignment, Justice Danny K. Chun of State Supreme Court, is Korean-American. After Justice Chun granted the prosecutors request to release the officer on his own recognizance, Mr. Gurleys aunt spat out: Asian judge!
New York Times said:We all know this is a rookie cop who doesnt know all the ropes, said Doug Lee, a former chairman of the Chinese Cultural Association of Long Island. We all know he was in a dangerous environment. Why did he charge a rookie cop with manslaughter, with the obvious intent of throwing him in jail? He added, This is a vicious attack on the family, and this is a vicious attack on the Chinese community.
New York Times said:Among the few who disagreed was Vivian Tan, 47, a former garment worker who was buying buns for Lunar New Year from Ms. Chen and, like her, spoke in Mandarin. The light was off. It was just too dark. You couldnt see anything, she said of the dim stairwell in the Louis H. Pink Houses where the shooting occurred. Theres no possibility that he killed him on purpose.
Yet Ms. Tan would not go further. Its not discrimination, she said. Its just unfair in general, because it was a mistake.
Full story:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/23/n...on=Footer&module=MoreInSection&pgtype=article