Grand Jury in Another Fatal Police Shooting

Dec. 8, 2014

Grand Jury in Another Fatal Police Shooting

brooklynn district attorney ken thompson
Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson will convene in the police shooting death of an unarmed Black man.

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from BlackmansStreet.Today

Brooklyn District Attorney Kenneth Thompson will present to a grand jury evidence surrounding the police shooting death of Akai Gurley, an unarmed man.

New York police officer Peter Liang shot and killed Gurley, 28, on Nov. 20 as he and his girlfriend walked down the stairs of the Louis H. Pink Houses, a housing project in Brooklyn. The elevator was either broken or slow and the couple decided to take the stairs.

Liang and his partner were patrolling the stairwell when Liang shot Gurley in the chest for no apparent reason. After being shot, Gurley fell two flights of stairs. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and Bill Bratton, New York’s police commissioner, said Gurley was  innocent.

Instead of trying to save Gurley’s life, Liang texted his union representative, according to the New York Daily News.

Thompson said he will impanel a grand jury, but he did not set a timetable.

“I pledge to conduct a full and fair investigation and to give the grand jury all of the information necessary to do its job,” Thompson said in a statement.

Gurley was buried Saturday.