NY Police Officer Peter Liang Indicted On 6 Charges
- second-degree manslaughter,
- criminally negligent homicide,
- reckless endangerment,
- second-degree assault, and
- – 6. two counts of official misconduct.
Peter Liang, left, arrives in court.
On November 20, 2014, New York City police officer Peter Liang shot and killed 28-year old Akai Gurley. Gurley was unarmed, and reportedly walking with his girlfriend down a stairwell at a Brooklyn housing project when Liang shot him.
Liang alleges that he was opening a door with the same hand that held his gun, and that the shooting was an accident. The grand jury however, returned an indictment of 6 counts against Liang. The question now is, will a jury convict Liang of any or all of the charges?
Liang is 27-years old. If convicted of second-degree manslaughter, Liang faces a minimum sentence of 1 to 3 years, and a maximum sentence of 5 to 15 years.
After shooting Akai, Officer Liang called his union representative rather than for medical assistance for Akai.
The LA Times reports that the indictment was the second this month of a police officer by a Brooklyn grand jury. On February 3, Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson announced that a policeman had been indicted on assault and other charges after allegedly stomping on the head of a suspect who was handcuffed and lying face-down.
Joel Edouard, the officer indicted for assault, faces up to one year in jail if convicted.
Posted on 02/12/2015, in Akai Gurley, Cases, Cops Gone Wild and tagged Akai Gurley, Brooklyn, indicted, Ken Thompson, manslaugher, Peter Liang. Bookmark the permalink. 32 Comments.
We Hold These Truths To Be Self-Evident 
How sick!!!
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Good morning Yahtzeebutterfly. Liang’s immediate reaction conveys that he was more concerned with covering his own butt because he believed he had done something wrong.
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Accidents do happen. But had it been Akai that had accidentally shot Lian, you can bet there would have been charges. Why did Liang have his gun out anyway, with the safety off and his finger on the trigger. Why did he call his Union rep instead of 911?
Accountability. That’s a huge part of what we’re asking for.
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Good morning Mindyme!
Accountability. ABSOLUTELY!
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If Liang gets off by claiming a defense of accident, then those charged with vehicular homicide should claim the same defense.
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Absolutely! Hi Xena!
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Why on Gods green earth is his gun in his hand while opening a door ?? Was he pursuing someone ?? Being the mere human that I am, using common sense like I do and having opened thousands of doors with something in my hand……………I always use what I loving refer to as …
….”my free hand”…………..but that’s just me.
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Racer,
You mentioned common sense. People who have a character of fear do not operate on common sense. They operate on the power of the weapon that they have — kinda like using a hammer to kill a fly. Then they say that the huge hole in the wall was an accident that they should not be held accountable for causing.
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Nothing common about common sense………..
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im sure he had a flash light in the other hand, no excuse. im sure they put fear in the rookies with stories about the apartment complex. i think that explains why he had his gun out already.
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Indictment is good. Now let’s see if the prosecutors present a strong case or a lukewarm warm. Most juries let guilty cops walk. Hopefully the tide of history will be turned.
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*lukewarm one*
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Two sides. I agree. The tide of history must change.
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One of the things I remember about this, was that while officers were to visit the housing development they weren’t supposed to go into the stairwell. He’ll have a hard time to justify doing something they were told not to do and he wasn’t pursuing anyone.
You just know that this officer realized he screwed up when his first instinct was to call the union rep before any other call. Hopefully this family will see some justice.
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I hope the jury takes that into consideration, that they weren’t supposed to even be there!
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Reblogged this on The Militant Negro™.
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Hey Jueseppi! Thanks for the reblog.
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Always my pleasure Xena, enjoy your Valentines Day tomorrow.
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Jueseppi,
Happy Valentine’s day. Have a wonderful weekend.
LikeLiked by 1 person
CYA
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This is what happens when officers receive fear driven and fear based training I mean lets be real with it. All of their training is focused on the boogy man theory and as a result things like this happen.
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There desperately needs to be more training on how to deescalate situations.
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I agree, they are always trained and I understand why. I mean there are legit threats out there but they keep that mindset 24/7 and that’s how and why we usually see this kind of stuff happen.
Another reason officers have a shoot 1st mentality is because the physical standards are not up to par. Don’t take me wrong here but allot of officers are out of shape. they can barely run quick enough to catch a subject who is fleeing.
You have both of those issues implemented in their methods of training and yes you will see allot more shootings like this.
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I was pleased to learn of this today. (It’s not very smart of the police to lie on their reports when they FORGOT their dash cams would show the truth)
http://www.waaytv.com/appnews/madison-officer-charged-with-assault-for-use-of-force-incident/article_7b09d144-b2fe-11e4-a0e4-b339eed5e1af.html
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A mentally ill man was shot and killed by police in Pasco Washington 2 nights ago, he had been throwing rocks at people but was running away when shot. This story gives some insight on how violent the PD is in Pasco.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/02/12/1363996/-Pasco-Washington-police-have-killed-more-people-than-police-in-Germany-the-UK-combined?detail=email
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“Ezell Ford: Remembering His Life Beyond The Moment of His Death”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/julie-bergman-sender/ezell-ford-remembering-hi_b_6678388.html
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I support this indictment.Let’s see if the conviction comes. Recently the FBI Director Comley made statements about race and police..Let’s see if the racists attack him(Comley) for playing the race card.Or put him in the BGI category,as the racists do Pres Obama and AG Holder.
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Chuquest,
HA! I just heard Thursday that the ring-leader cyber-extortionist has declared that the Lake Mary Chief of Police is “BGI.” Of course, racial bigots defend Liang on the premise that he was right to profile everyone in that building even when they are not committing any crime. The bigotvoyant belief is that if the person wasn’t committing a crime THEN, that they had previously or would in the future which of course gives them the right to say who deserves to be killed.
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The 3 guys that murdered James Anderson in Mississippi were just sentenced.
http://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2015/02/10/deryl-dedmon-two-others-to-be-sentenced-in-hate-crime-tuesday/23166397/
The Federal Judge that issued their sentence also gave a speech in court. In reading it, it was not solely directed at the defendants but for the benefit of this nation.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2015/02/12/385777366/a-black-mississippi-judges-breathtaking-speech-to-three-white-murderers?utm_campaign=storyshare&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social
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The judge’s words are powerful.
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Yahtzeebutterfly, yes. Profound.
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