BY Herschel Smith
10 years ago
New York Post:
A rookie cop fatally shot an unarmed man inside a dimly lit Brooklyn housing project stairwell late Thursday — igniting an investigation by the NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau, authorities said.
Peter Liang and his partner, Shaun Landau, also a rookie, entered at the eighth floor at the Pink Houses at 2724 Linden Blvd. about 11:15 p.m. when 28-year-old victim Akai Gurley entered from the seventh floor with his girlfriend — startling the cops, police sources said.
Liang fired one shot into Gurley’s chest from about 10 to 12 feet away, sending him tumbling down to the fifth floor, where he collapsed, sources said. He later told other cops it was an “accidental shooting,” sources said.
During a press conference Friday, Police Commissioner Bill Bratton described the incident as an “accident” that was the result of a “pitch black” stairway.
“As the officers were entering the eighth-floor landing, the lights were not operable,” he said. “Everything points to accidental discharge.”
So apparently he had his finger on the trigger of his weapon, he had the muzzle of the weapon pointed in the direction of another human, he pulled the trigger, the area was “pitch black,” and he killed a man. But it was “accidental.”
And remember boys and girls. If you or I do this we are headed to prison – for a very long time.
