New York Daily News – by RYAN SIT , ROCCO PARASCANDOLA , LARRY MCSHANE
A “nervous” rookie cop fatally shot an unarmed man without a word of warning in the stairwell of a Brooklyn housing project late Thursday, a police source said.
The victim’s helpless girlfriend recounted Friday how she was left to watch Akai Gurley die after the single gunshot tore into his chest without so much as a word of warning.
Officer Peter Liang, who fired the fatal shot, “heard a noise,” a police source told the Daily News. “It was dark. He must have been nervous.”
Gurley, 28, had just entered the stairwell near his steady sweetheart’s seventh floor apartment at about 11:15 p.m. when Liang fatally shot him in the chest, said the source and the girlfriend.
“I shot him accidentally,” Liang told colleagues afterward. His partner partner never fired his gun, the source said.
Devastated gal pal Melissa Butler, with tears pouring down her face Friday morning, said the officer coming downstairs from the eighth floor blasted Gurley without explanation.
The only sound was the deafening echo of the gunshot in the stairwell at the Pink Houses.
“They didn’t identify themselves,” said Butler, 27, who began dating Gurley in January 2011. “No nothing. They didn’t give no explanation. They just pulled a gun and shot him in the chest.”
The terrified couple ran down to the fifth floor before Gurley collapsed in a pool of blood. Butler, who was standing alongside her boyfriend when he was hit, recalled their frantic final moments together as she begged Gurley to keep fighting.
“Yo, you OK? Talk to me!” she recalled shouting. “He wasn’t saying nothing. That was the last thing I said to him.”
Butler said the officers never came down to check on the mortally wounded man, and medical help was only sent after she banged on a neighbor’s door for help.
“She opened the door and said, ‘Yo, is somebody hurt?’” recounted Butler, holding a damp washcloth over her red and swollen eyes. “I said, ‘Yeah, my boyfriend.’”
Gurley died at Brookdale University Hospital shortly after his arrival by ambulance, police said.
Local politician Charles Barron condemned the shooting as an outrage.
“They didn’t find a gun,” said the state assemblyman-elect. “And believe me, if he had anything, if he had a slingshot, they would have put that in the report. This is incredible.
“I want to hear the justification for this one.”
DANNY IUDICI/ FOR NY DAILY NEWSPolice investigate the scene of the shooting by a ‘nervous’ rookie cop.Just a short time earlier, Butler had braided her boyfriend’s hair inside her apartment. She said the slain man lived with his 2-year-old daughter in Red Hook, and was just about to start working for the city.
The NYPD, in a press release, said the two uniformed officers were on a vertical patrol in the building when they came down the stairs at about 11:15 p.m.
One of the officers fired a single shot, but further information was not provided. It unclear why the officer fired, and a police source said Gurley was not armed.
The NYPD press release described the stairwell as “dimly lit.”
Police Commissioner Bill Bratton was expected to brief the media about the shooting at an 11:30 p.m. press conference at police headquarters in Manhattan.
Both officers were taken to Jamaica Hospital for treatment of tinnitus.
rparascandola@nydailynews.com
I guess “I was nervous” will now be a legitimate defense
along with “I was in fear of my life” for coproaches to get away with murder.
“He was going for my gun”
“heard a noise,”
More trigger happy cops. It absolutely appalls me, the state of mind of these psychologically unstable people carrying badges and guns today. There have always been questionable characters in police work as in any other profession, but this crap is getting totally out of hand.
Apparently he wasn’t taught “The Rules” ~ 1. All guns are always loaded, 2. Never let the muzzle cover anything you aren’t willing to destroy, 3. Keep your finger OFF the trigger until your sights are on the target and 4. Always be sure of your target and the surroundings. Just can’t teach those rookies!!!
just in time for Ferguson
no mention of race , so Im assuming the guy that got gunned down must have been ??? , and there will be no riots???
and the cop will be justified??
and still keep his job??
and be on paid vacation….full pension…maybe even an accommodation..?
nahh we dont have a cop problem (sarc)
dam , you cant even be where you belong doing what your allowed to do and they gun you down. wonder how they will weasel out of this one?
probably by pay off with our tax dollars
What the police must come to understand is this. You have a dead or shot body with a bullet in it. It is unarmed, you have the gun the bullet came from, you have the owner of the gun standing there. You make a arest cuff it and tase it kick it around a little and haul it of to jail. As normal. You then press charges and have a fair trial in the area court of area people to make a judgement on such. You see a Jury is the consuioness of a town and the people. A Grand Jury is not! And moveing the trial is not. That is a COP OUT!! Sohave the arest, have the trial, and let the people who live there judge. Like the systom is to work. Not a well we don’t like. Only then can the police come back and ask for area suport! As doing it there way has deprived the area of its right to be the consious of that area. So no phoney well we are police squille and we are allowed to! That is the problem self made by the police in America. What is left to respect of you once you are done not doing your job right? And hideing behind the sheild rather than standing behind the sheild. You see a sheild stood behind can protect a wariour of good valor. But a sheild couwered behind by a coward is worthless as a American cop.
Look, calm down! Let the kid kill a few more people until he gets some experience under his belt, it’s on the job training. He’w working some kinks out, he’s a little nervous. Rookies make mistakes, just let him kill a few more people and shake those nerves!!! Anyone got a problem with that?
He just past his first test. Will probably get a Citation for his bravery, “cuz I was scared”. 420 😆