A former New York City cop will face community service instead of going to prison for shooting an unarmed black man. The judge's decision sparked emotional protests between both sides of this controversy.
Peter Liang, 28, will not go to jail and spend 15 years of his life there for the death of an unarmed black man, named Akai Gurley, 28. Instead, State Supreme Court Judge Danny Chun reduced the conviction of manslaughter count to criminally negligent homicide and Liang will just face five years probationary and 800 hours of community service.
According to Reuters, the judge's decision resulted when prosecutors have failed to prove that Liang "consciously disregarded" the risk of causing another person's death.
The unfortunate incident happened back November 20, 2014 when Liang was patrolling a darkened stairs inside a public housing building in Brooklyn. He then fired a single shot which he claimed as accidental. The bullet ricocheted off a wall and Liang has no idea that Gurley was walking one floor below. The bullet struck Gurley in the chest.
"There is no evidence, circumstantially or otherwise, that the defendant was aware of Akai Gurley's presence," Chun said.
In an article released by Yahoo, Liang defended his side claiming that he was not aware of Gurley's presence and that his bullet had hit anyone until he saw Gurley's girlfriend trying to revive him. The police officeer said that he heard a noise that startled him which prompted him to pull the trigger.
Before Liang received his sentence, he gave his sincere apologies to the family of Gurley in court and said he never intended to pull the trigger. "My life is forever changed," he said.
Judge Chun's decision sparked outrage to Gurley's family, civil rights community and Asian American community. According to USA Today, Sylvia Palmer, the mother of Gurley said an emotional statement in response to the judge's decision. She also criticized Brooklyn District Attorney Kenneth Thompson for recommending a home confinement sentence to Liang.
"By escaping jail time, Peter Liang faces no meaningful legal accountability for killing Akai," she said. "This felony conviction without appropriate consequences makes clear that police are treated as if they are above the law, allowing Liang to walk out of court home to his family while my son will never be able to do the same. Judge Chun's sentencing decision today is an insult to the life of Akai Gurley, to me as his mother, to all families whose loved ones have been killed by police, and all New Yorkers. Shame on D.A. Thompson, Judge Chun and New York City - while we thank the community for standing with our family, this is another sad chapter in this city's history with the status quo maintained."
Liang's case is one of the many cases where cops were said to be over-exercising their power. Different groups and communities protested to condemn the judge's decision. According to them, the sentence sends a message that it is okay to kill an innocent person as long as it is done by a police officer. The same case happened in 1996 when Qing Lan Huang, an Asian-American who lives in New York, whose younger brother was killed by a cop when they mistook his BB gun for the real thing. Like the Gurleys and other supporters, Huang also expressed his disappointment and anger towards the decision. "The system denied justice to Akai Gurley's family just like it denied justice to mine," he said.
A Facebook page, "Justice for Akai Gurley Family," was put up by Gurley's family to draw support and it already has more than 1,300 likes.
On the other hand, Liang also has his own supporters. Protests were done in San Francisco and other areas which claim that the Chinese-American officer should not be sentenced for a crime he did not intentionally commit, while white officers are not convicted nor even tried in shooting cases.
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