Who was Akai Gurley?

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Akai Kareem Gurley (c. 1986 – November 20, 2014) was born in Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, the Caribbean, and moved to New York when he was a child. He was a resident of the Louis H. Pink Houses, where he lived with his girlfriend and two-year-old daughter. 

What happened to him?

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Akai Gurley, a 28-year-old man, was fatally shot on November 20, 2014, in Brooklyn, New York City, United States, by a New York City Police Department officer. Two police officers, patrolling stairwells in the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA)'s Louis H. Pink Houses in East New York, Brooklyn, entered a pitch-dark, unlit stairwell, one of them, Officer Peter Liang, 27, with his firearm drawn. Gurley and his girlfriend entered the seventh-floor stairwell, fourteen steps below them. Liang fired his weapon; his shot ricocheted off a wall and fatally struck Gurley in the chest. A jury convicted Liang of manslaughter, which a court later reduced to criminally negligent homicide.  On February 10, 2015, Liang was indicted by a grand jury  for manslaughter, assault, and other criminal charges (five counts total) after grand jury members were shown footage of the unlit Pink house, and passed around the 9mm Glock used in the shooting, testing the possibility of equipment failure - concluding that the 11.5-pound (51-newton) trigger could not have been fired unintentionally. Liang turned himself in to authorities the next day to be arraigned on the charges. Liang was convicted of manslaughter and official misconduct on February 11, 2016, and faced up to 15 year of prison time. He was expected to appeal while he remained free without bail. Peter Liang appealed the court's decision. 

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The shooting

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Akai Gurley, 28 years old, was visiting his girlfriend and getting his hair braided before Thanksgiving. He entered the stairwell on the 7th floor, below Officers Shaun Landau and Peter Liang, who were patrolling the pitch-dark stairwell with no lights. According to the prosecutors, seconds earlier, Officer Liang, who is left-handed, pulled out his flashlight with his right hand and unholstered his 9mm Glock with his left. He then shoved open the stairwell door with his right shoulder with his gun drawn pointed down the way police officers are trained. It appeared neither side knew the other was there and no words were exchanged, according to authorities. Liang's gun allegedly accidentally discharged as he opened the door and the bullet ricocheted off the wall and struck Gurley once in the chest. He died within a few minutes. Upon entering, Liang said he heard "a quick sound" to his left which startled him. He turned left and "it just went off when my whole body tensed up", Liang testified. It was reported that Gurley actually ran after hearing the gunshot, and didn't realize he was bleeding until collapsing on the fifth floor. 

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What happened with his case?

 

On March 28, 2016, the prosecuting Brooklyn District Attorney Kenneth P. Thompson recommended to Judge Danny Chun that Liang serve only house arrest and community service for his sentence. On April 19, 2016, Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun sentenced Peter Liang to five years of probation and 800 hours community service, after downgrading his manslaughter conviction to criminally negligent homicide.  

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What can we do?

1. Sign the petition to reopen Akai Gurley's case