NYPD Cop Peter Liang Found Guilty of Manslaughter in Akai Gurley’s Murder

Officer Peter Liang, the NYPD rookie officer who shot and killed an unarmed man in a New York housing project stairwell in 2014, was found guilty of manslaughter and official misconduct on Thursday.

The jury’s verdict came after 17 hours of deliberations. The seven men and five women of the jury reached their decision on their second full day of deliberations after requesting white boards and the NYPD’s firearm and tactics guide.

The conviction means Liang will be automatically fired from the police department.

Akai Gurley was shot in the chest and died at a hospital in Brooklyn in November of 2014.

The next day, police Commissioner William Bratton told reporters the 28-year-old was “a total innocent” who fell victim to “a very unfortunate tragedy … involving an accidental discharge.”

On Tuesday, the defense told jurors that Liang handled his firearm as trained, and that the video of the crime scene shows that having his weapon drawn in the darkness of the stairwell was the correct course of action.

Liang gave tearful testimony on the stand Monday, just before both sides rested in the case. He lost his composure when asked to recount what happened in the stairwell on that night.

“I was panicking. I was in shock, in disbelief that someone was actually hit,” he said.

The prosecutor has accused the rookie officer of recklessly shooting into a dark stairwell “for no reason.”

“Then, instead of doing all that he could to help Akai Gurley, he wasted precious time arguing with his partner about calling for help,” Assistant District Attorney Marc Fliedner told jurors last month. “In fact, instead of calling for help, he just stood there and whined and moaned about how he would get fired.”

Liang will be sentenced in April.

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