The uniformed officer fired a
single, fatal shot into Akai Gurley's chest moments after he and his girlfriend
entered a stairwell in the Pink Houses on Linden Blvd. in East New York on
Thursday night, police said. Gurley was not armed, a police source said. 'They
just pulled a gun and shot him in the chest,' Gurley's girlfriend said.
BY Ryan Sit
, Rocco Parascandola ,
Larry Mcshane
Akai Gurley was accidentally
shot and killed by a police officer in a Brooklyn building, cops
said.FacebookAkai Gurley was accidentally shot and killed by a police officer
in a Brooklyn building, cops said.
A panicked rookie cop in a
pitch-black housing project stairwell killed an unarmed man with a single
gunshot to the chest as the officer fumbled around in the darkness with a
flashlight and a handgun.
The fatal shooting, which
officials described as a tragic accident, happened during a vertical patrol
late Thursday — months after the superintendent of the Brooklyn development
asked NYCHA to fix the stairwell lights.
But it wasn’t until Friday
morning — hours after Akai Gurley was killed — that workers finally replaced
the lights at the Pink Houses in Brooklyn.
The helpless girlfriend of
28-year-old Gurley, 28, recounted watching him die in a puddle of blood after
the routine police patrol turned into a horror show.
“They need to pay for his
funeral,” said Melissa Butler, 27. “They killed him. Ya’ll killed an innocent
man.”
Gurley was gunned down when
probationary Officer Peter Liang’s .9 mm accidentally discharged, with a bullet
ricocheting off the wall and tearing into his chest, sources said.
A devastated Liang “was a
crying mess,” a police source told the Daily News. “Breathing heavy. He was
sitting on the floor for 45 minutes. He was a mess.”
His partner, in a version of
Thursday night’s events echoed by Mayor de Blasio and NYPD Commissioner Bill
Bratton, said the fatal shooting was a bizarre mistake.
Liang clutched his Glock .9 mm
in his left hand and a flashlight in his right when he entered the stairwell
around 11:15 p.m. from the eighth floor.
Liang “heard a noise,” the
police source told the News. “It was dark. He must have been nervous.”
Gurley and Butler, who had just
finished braiding her boyfriend’s hair, only took the stairs because of a
slow-moving elevator. They opened the seventh-floor stairwell door at about the
same instant that Liang and his partner entered from one floor up.
Liang was upstairs from Gurley
when his gun accidentally fired as he opened the door, his partner Officer
Shaun Landau told investigators.
Akai Gurley was fatally shot
after two uniformed officers encountered him in the stairwell between the
seventh and eighth floors of the building.Alex Rud for New York Daily News
But it was unclear if the
left-handed Liang was holding the weapon in the same hand that he used to open
the door. A mark on the stairwell wall indicates the bullet ricocheted before
striking Gurley. it was the only bullet fired.
The wounded man actually ran
for his life after hearing the gunshot, and didn’t realize he was bleeding
until collapsing on the fifth floor.
“I shot him accidentally,” the devastated cop
confessed to his colleagues. His partner Landau never pulled his weapon from
its holster.
Bratton and de Blasio agreed
the shooting was a terrible mistake — although Liang had yet to tell his story
to police.
“What happened last night was a
very unfortunate tragedy,” Bratton said Friday. “... It appears this may have
been in fact an accidental discharge.”
Bratton, along with de Blasio
and First Lady Chirlane McCray, visited Gurley’s family in Red Hook, Brooklyn,
for about 10 minutes on Friday night. They didn’t speak to reporters, but
Kirsten Foy, of the National Action Network, was inside the apartment during
the meeting.
Foy said the city’s top cop,
the mayor and McCray hugged and kissed Kimberly Michelle Ballinger, a woman
identified as Gurley’s “common-law wife” and the mother of his 2-year-old
daughter.
“They offered their apologies,
condolences and support going forward so she was heartened by that...grateful,”
Foy said. “It was a very human moment for them.”
Devastated gal pal Butler, with
tears pouring down her face earlier Friday, said Liang blasted Gurley without
identifying himself or even addressing the couple.
The only sound was the
deafening echo of the gunshot in the stairwell at the Pink Houses.
“They didn’t give no explanation. They didn’t
identify themselves,” said Butler, who began dating Gurley in January 2011. “No
nothing. They just pulled a gun and shot him in the chest.”
Butler, who was standing
alongside her boyfriend when he was hit, recalled their frantic final moments
together as she begged Gurley to keep fighting.
“Yo, you OK? Talk to me!” she
recalled shouting. “He wasn’t saying nothing. That was the last thing I said to
him.”
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries
(D-Brooklyn) angrily dismissed the official explanation of an accidental shooting.
“The senseless killing of another unarmed
African-American male by the NYPD should shock the conscience of all New
Yorkers and the nation,” said Jeffries. “At this point, talk is cheap.”
Gurley’s sister, along with
mother of his daughter, were slated to appear Saturday with the Rev. Al
Sharpton.
“I can’t believe my Big Bro is actually gone
man,” his sister Akisha Pringle wrote on Facebook. “Just celebrated his 28th
birthday a couple days ago. And now he gone.”
Pringle said she received a 3
a.m. Friday call from Butler to break the painful news. Gurley, along with his
daughter, was planning to leave on Friday for a Thanksgiving trip to Florida.
“It was going to be a surprise
for his mom because she hasn’t seen him in a while,” said Kenneth Palmer, the
dead man’s stepfather. “He was going to say, ‘This is my family, mom.’”
The 2-year-old girl asked her
mom on Friday afternoon why her father didn’t come to pick her up from day
care.
Liang, who joined the force in
July 2013, was placed on modified duty after turning in his gun and shield. The
Brooklyn district attorney and NYPD internal affairs were both investigating.
As a probationary officer,
Liang can be fired without a departmental hearing.
“As we continue to gather the
facts, the fatal shooting of this unarmed man is deeply troubling and warrants
an immediate, fair and thorough investigation,” said Brooklyn DA Ken Thompson.
Butler said the officers never
came down to check on the mortally wounded man, and medical help was only sent
after she banged on a neighbor’s door for help.
“She opened the door and said, ‘Yo, is
somebody hurt?’” Butler said, holding a damp washcloth over her red and swollen
eyes. “I said, ‘Yeah, my boyfriend.’”
Gurley died at Brookdale
University Hospital shortly after his arrival by ambulance, police said.
“They’re going to shoot him in
the chest and walk away — like he was a dog!” said Melissa’s mother,
69-year-old Naomi Butler. “He is a human being.”
It took the two officers a full
five minutes after the first 911 call to report the shooting, backing the
contention of sources that the two rookies were stunned and unsure what to do.
Melissa Butler, 27, is seen
here comforted by an unidentified woman. She said that those responsible need
to pay for Gurley's funeral.Sam Costanza for New York Daily NewsMelissa Butler,
27, is seen here comforted by an unidentified woman. She said that those
responsible need to pay for Gurley's funeral.
The darkness in the building
stairwell endured despite a request made over the summer to upgrade the lights,
sources familiar with the matter told the News. The sources said the request
was made in July or August. NYCHA officials declined to comment.
The stairwell remained dimly
lit until Friday morning, when a maintenance man was seen fixing a light on the
seventh floor. Landings from the fifth through eighth floors were brightly lit
by afternoon, while the fourth floor landing remained dark. Residents said this
was a common occurrence.
The inexperienced Liang and his
equally raw partner were sent to walk the darkened staircases a vertical patrol
of the building in the dangerous housing project.
“If they’re rookie cops, I
guess they were afraid for their lives,” said Pink Houses resident Veronica
Newsome, 66. “I sympathize with them.”
The patrols have previously
proven dangerous for cops.
In 1988, housing cop Anthony
McLean was gunned down after stumbling on a crack dealer while patrolling a
building in Brownsville.
NYPD Officer Brian Groves was
shot at close range — and saved by his bullet-resistant vest — while patrolling
a lower East Side housing project in Dec. 2012.
“My heart goes out to the
family of the young man who was lost,” said Mayor de Blasio. “We don’t know
enough but it does appear to have been an accident. And look, we’re going to do
a full investigation.”
