The Akai Gurley fatal shooting case trial begins on Monday, Jan.25. Prosecutors believed that the New York Police Department Officer Peter Liang broke rule after rule when he unintentionally killed Mr. Gurley, 28 in the Louis Pink houses in the Brooklyn neighborhood of East New York. The rookie police officer was charged with second-degree manslaughter in February.
According to The Guardian, the officer is also facing several charges in the Nov. 20, 2014 Akai Gurley fatal shooting that happened inside a Brooklyn public housing project such as assault, criminally negligent homicide, and official misconduct. If he would be proven guilty, he could face up to 15 years of sentence. On Monday, Liang faced before Justice Danny K. Chun. Melissa Lopez, a neighbor of Gurley and his wife Melissa Butler was there to represent as the second witness.
"Akai Gurley is dead today because he crossed paths with Peter Liang, who is sitting here," Marc J. Fliedner, a prosecutor who is the chief of the civil rights bureau at the Brooklyn district attorney's office, said in his opening statement.
As The Source reported on Jan.25, Rae Koshetz, Liang defense lawyer claimed that the 28-year-old officer inadvertently fired his gun without thinking that the bullet rebounded off the wall and hit the victim's chest. The lawyer added that it happened in a pitch-black stairwell. In the Akai Gurley fatal shooting trial, both of the sides concurred that the officer was patrolling at that time and fired his gun down that led to killing of an unarmed black man, Gurley.
Meanwhile, Lopez testified as the second witness for the Akai Gurley fatal shooting case, the New York Times reports. She claimed that she and her partner were in their apartment in Louis H. Pink Houses in East New York when they heard a gunshot. She said that Butler knocked on the door of her apartment asking for help. Butler insisted that her boyfriend, Akai Gurley was shot by Liang.
"I saw her standing there, crying, asking for help, her hands all bloody," Ms. Lopez said.
The Akai Gurley fatal shooting case is one of the controversial cases that triggered nationwide tension against police officers using force against the minorities. Gurley is a black while Liang is a Chinese-American.
