Cop Who Killed Akai Gurley Pleads Not Guilty, Is Released Without Bail
LatestPeter Liang is the rookie NYPD officer who shot and killed Akai Gurley while on an unapproved stairwell patrol in the Louis H. Pink housing project late last year, adding Gurley to the long list of unarmed black men whose lives were taken away from them because they scared a police officer, and whose deaths are handled in the coldest of fashions: Liang killed Gurley out of “jitters,” texted his union representative while his victim bled out, and waited more than six and a half minutes before radioing for help or responding to his commanding officer.
Who knows why Liang was indicted while, say, Daniel Pantaleo was not? (I do have my guesses.) Regardless, as per the New York Times, he is the first New York City cop to be indicted in more than two years for a “fatal on-duty encounter.” Liang is up on six counts: according to the New York Post, “second-degree manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, assault, reckless endangerment, and two counts of official misconduct.”