NYPD fires partner of cop convicted of manslaughter in stairwell
shooting after victim's family calls for his dismissal
Shaun Landau was fired after former partner, Peter
Liang, was found guilty in the shooting death of unarmed Akai Gurley
Landau avoided criminal charges by testifying
under immunity agreement
His termination came hours after the Gurley family
called for his dismissal
Liang could face up to 15 years in prison at his
sentencing in April
By VALERIE EDWARDS FOR DAILYMAIL.COM and REUTERS
The New York Police Department fired the former partner of ex-cop
Peter Liang less than 24 hours after Liang was convicted of shooting an unarmed
man in Brooklyn.
Shaun Landau, the terminated officer, testified for the
prosecution during Liang's trial.
Liang was convicted of manslaughter and official misconduct on
Thursday for firing his gun in a darkened public housing stairwell in November
2014 as the two officers began a so-called 'vertical patrol'.
The bullet ricocheted off a wall and struck Akai Gurley, 28, who
had been walking one floor below with his girlfriend.
Neither officer offered medical assistance to Gurley once they
realized he had been hit by the shot. Both testified that they felt unqualified
to do so because of poor CPR training at the police academy.
Landau avoided criminal charges by agreeing to testify under an
immunity agreement. The police department said he had been fired at the
discretion of Commissioner Bill Bratton.
Since Landau was a probationary officer — with less than two years
on the job — the NYPD does not have to state a reason for the firing beyond
'unsatisfactory probation,' a law-enforcement source said.
His termination came hours after the Gurley family released a
statement calling for his dismissal. Liang was fired immediately after the
jury's verdict on Thursday.
At trial, Liang said he was startled by an unidentified
sound as he entered the stairwell with his gun drawn, causing his finger to
slip onto the trigger and fire.
But 12 Brooklyn jurors agreed that Liang wasn't telling the truth
about how the gun actually went off.
Retired candy-store owner and Juror No. 10, Carlton Screen, told
the New York Post that when the jurors tested an unloaded gun it led them to
conclude that the rookie had lied about not having his finger on the trigger
when it fired.
'It was very hard to pull the trigger,' he said.
'They had another safety that's on the trigger itself, so you have
to pull it hard enough to release that safety in order for it to fire.'
Liang had tearfully described his horror when he realized minutes
later that Gurley had been hit.
But prosecutors accused him of deliberately firing toward the
sound and ignoring the fact that only another person could have made such a
noise.
They also said he acted recklessly in drawing his weapon in the
first place.
Liang faces up to 15 years in prison at his sentencing in April.
Police-reform activists, who have come to expect disappointment
any time an officer is accused in a killing, expressed surprise Friday over the
conviction of a patrolman who shot an unarmed man in a housing project
stairwell but said they don't necessarily see the case as a turning point in
the national debate over police accountability.
'It's definitely movement in the right direction,' said Lumumba
Bandele, a demonstrator who attended nearly every day of the patrolman's trial.
But, he added, 'It's not a victory in the larger scale of having
made significant advances. We have a backlog of cases that have yet to be
investigated, much less indicted.'
It was the first time in a decade a New York Police Department
officer was held responsible for a line-of-duty killing.
The outcome stood in stark contrast to many other cases around the
country in which police have been accused of killing unarmed black men and
boys.
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