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| Akai Gurley, in a photograph that was posted to his profile on ExploreTalent, a casting website for actors and models |
N.Y. TIMES
Two police officers prepared to enter the pitch-black eighth-floor stairwell of a building in a Brooklyn housing project, one of them with his sidearm drawn. At the same time, a man and his girlfriend, frustrated by a long wait for an elevator, entered the seventh-floor stairwell, 14 steps below. In the darkness, a shot rang out from the officer’s gun, and the 28-year-old man below was struck in the chest and, soon after, fell dead.
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| Late Thursday night in this dim stairwell of a Brooklyn housing project, Officer Peter Liang accidentally killed Akai Gurley, 28. Credit Robert Stolarik for The New York Times |
New York police commissioner, William J. Bratton, announced that the shooting was accidental and that the victim, Akai Gurley, had done nothing to provoke a confrontation with the officers.
The episode promised to bring scrutiny to a longtime police practice of officers drawing their weapons when patrolling stairwells in housing projects.
Additional officers, many new to the Police Department, were assigned to patrol the buildings, including the two officers in the stairwell on Thursday night, who were working an overtime tour.
Having just inspected the roof, the officers prepared to conduct what is known as a vertical patrol, an inspection of a building’s staircases, which tend to be a magnet for criminal activity or quality-of-life nuisances.
Both officers took out their flashlights, and one, Peter Liang, 27, a probationary officer with less than 18 months on the job, drew his sidearm, a 9-millimeter semiautomatic.
It appears that Officer Liang accidentally fired, the official said. He and the other officer both jumped back into the hallway, and Officer Liang shouted something to the effect that he had accidentally fired his weapon, the official said.
Mr. Gurley had spent the past hours getting his hair braided at a friend’s apartment. He and his girlfriend, Melissa Butler, waited for an elevator on the seventh floor, but it never came, so they opened the door to the dark stairwell instead. An instant later, the shot was fired. Mr. Gurley and Ms. Butler were probably unaware that the shot came from a police officer’s gun.
Commissioner Bratton called Mr. Gurley “a total innocent” and said the shooting was “an unfortunate accident.” The victim was not engaged in any activity other than trying to walk down the stairs, Mr. Bratton said.
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| At left, William J. Bratton, the New York police commissioner, and Mayor Bill de Blasio, accompanied by his wife, Chirlane McCray, arriving at the home of Mr. Gurley to pay condolences. Credit Uli Seit for The New York Times |
The Brooklyn district attorney, Kenneth P. Thompson, issued a statement that questioned the condition of the lighting in the stairwell.
“Many questions must be answered, including whether, as reported, the lights in the hallway were out for a number of days, and how this tragedy actually occurred,” Mr. Thompson said.
Neighbors said darkened stairwells were nothing new in the Pink Houses.
Speaking on Saturday at his National Action Network headquarters in Harlem, the Rev. Al Sharpton said the circumstances surrounding the shooting, which police officials have described as an accident, required a more complete inquiry.
“They are saying it was an accident,” Mr. Sharpton said. “We are saying, ‘How do we know until there is a thorough investigation?’ ”
“There are certain things you train officers to do in almost all situations, and that’s not to have their finger on the trigger,” said John C. Cerar, a retired New York deputy inspector who was the commander of the department’s firearms training. But, he said, the fear that can come with patrolling the stairwells can overwhelm the protocol.