The rookie New York police officer who fatally shot an unarmed black man was indicted on Tuesday for manslaughter, the New York Daily News reported.
Peter Liang could face up to 15 years in prison for the fatal shooting, an anonymous source told the Daily News. He was reportedly indicted for second-degree manslaughter, which the newspaper said suggests he acted recklessly during the incident.
According to the Daily News, the case opened before a grand jury on Feb. 4.
The shooting took place on Nov. 20 in a darkened housing project stairwell in Brooklyn. Liang and his partner were patrolling the area when he shot 28-year-old Akai Gurley.
Although the newspaper attempted to get a statement from the Brooklyn district attorney, a spokeswoman for the office refused to comment on the charges or case.
The Daily News reported that Liang will be arraigned in the Brooklyn Supreme Court and will likely turn himself in on Wednesday.
The right call. The police are VERY necessary in these areas, but they are NOT supposed to be in the stairwells patrolling, that is far too dangerous and makes no sense. You want “presence” in the area so you can respond when required. These clowns broke protocol, the NYPD is very clear that you are not supposed to be in the stairwells unless responding to a call. And I’m guessing they found out the story about the bullet ricochet was BS. Plus this asshole called his Union Rep first. VERY warranted indictment. The clown in the Garner case also should have been indicted. I have heard people say “what if they used a taser and he died”. Well, then since that would have been LEGAL, that would not be an issue. The whole point was the ILLEGAL choke hold on that one. If Garner had resisted arrest, was tazed, and then died, that would be unfortunate, but totally legal. The hold was not.
Sigh…I can’t help thinking that they’re throwing us a bone by throwing LIANG under the bus. What if his last name was Flaherty or Ruggieri (and his skin colored accordingly)? should he be indicted? I dunno, probably, but I can’t help wondering why we’re still not seeing (or at least why I feel like we’re not seeing) white cops get indicted for these things.
Wouldn’t be the first time. Recall the Tailhook scandal? The only two guys to get court a martial were a black and Hispanic officer. Don’t know the outcome. I got this info from the 60 Minutes story some years back.
I don’t know where you get your information, but my understanding–based on news reports, principally NYT is that patrolling in the stairwells is common if not universal. And that having his gun drawn at the time was at least common practice. I’m not saying that he should not have been indicted, but from what I’ve seen and heard, he was not that far out of line.
The lethality of tasers and their profligate use is another story, of course…