NYPD kills innocent man
A rookie officer with the New York Police Department killed an unarmed man because he was "nervous."
The New York Daily News reports Akai Gurley was fatally shot by a uniformed NYPD officer named Peter Liang as he walked down a stairway that Gurley and his girlfriend entered.
In justifying the shooting, NYPD Commissioner William Bratton said that the hallway was dark and the inexperienced officer heard a noise that had startled him. According to the Daily News, Gurley was not a suspect in any crime and totally unarmed at the time of the shooting. Citing Gurley's girlfriend, Melissa Butler, the Daily News said that the officers did not identify themselves or say anything to the couple before Liang fatally shot Gurley. The incident took place at a housing project in New York City's Brooklyn neighborhood called the Pink Houses. The Daily News reports that the officers chose to use the poorly lit stairwell rather than the elevator because the elevator was too slow. The shooting took place between the seventh and eighth floors of the housing projects. Gurley and Butler fled to the fifth floor before Gurley collapsed in a pool of blood from his injuries, according to the Daily News. Butler claims that the officers did not follow them down the stairs, nor did they send medical assistance. She says an ambulance only arrived after she knocked on a residents' door begging for help. Gurley has a two-year-old daughter was about to begin a job with the city of New York. The New York Times reports Gurley was 28-years-old and an aspiring model and actor. The fatal incident took place just before midnight. The shooting is sure to increase scrutiny on the training of NYPD officers. During the summer, an unarmed man named Eric Garner was choked to death by NYPD officers working on Staten Island because he was selling individual cigarettes.
