Witness: NYPD Cop Peter Liang “Did Nothing” While Akai Gurley Bled to Death
Peter Liang, the NYPD officer who is accused of shooting and killing Brooklyn resident Akai Gurley, “did nothing” to help Gurley after the shooting, a witness testified in court yesterday. Liang is charged with manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide and faces up to 15 years in prison.
In 2014, Gurley was ascending a darkened stairwell in the Pink Houses, the East New York housing project where he lived, when Liang discharged his service weapon and sent a bullet ricocheting off of a wall and into Gurley’s chest. Liang was patrolling the stairs with his gun drawn and his finger on the trigger, according to prosecutors.
Jurors heard testimony yesterday from Melissa Lopez, a neighbor of Gurley’s who called 911 after Gurley’s girlfriend notified her of his death. “I didn’t see him do anything. I saw him walk around them and come down the stairs to ask me what was the address to the building,” she said of Liang.
Prosecutors also played a recording of Lopez’s 911 call, which is embedded via the New York Daily News above. After a dispatcher asks Lopez if police are present and assisting Gurley’s girlfriend with administering CPR, she answers, “They’re right here. They’re not with her. They’re trying to I guess call for backup. I don’t know.”
Rae Koshetz, Liang’s defense lawyer, alleged that his finger was not on the gun’s trigger, and that administering CPR would not have helped him. “It is a fatal wound. No amount of CPR can save Akai Gurley,” Koshetz said.
