UpdateNo jail time for ex-NYPD cop Peter Liang, sentenced to probation and community service for killing unarmed black man
A judge downgraded Liang’s conviction from manslaughter to criminally negligent homicide in the stairwell shooting of Akai Gurley
A New York police officer will not serve any jail time for killing an unarmed black man, after a judge Tuesday downgraded his manslaughter conviction to criminally negligent homicide.
Peter Liang, a rookie officer who had been on the job just months at the time of the November 2014 killing, was sentenced to five years probation and 800 hours of community service, the prosecutor’s office said.
Akai Gurley, a 28-year-old father of one, was killed by a bullet that ricocheted off the wall in a darkened stairwell of a public housing apartment block in Brooklyn.
His death, along with others of unarmed black men at the hands of American police officers, sparked nationwide protests and fueled debate about police tactics and allegations of institutional racism.
Liang is “a convicted felon” who has “forfeited his career as a police officer and must now always live with the fact that he recklessly caused Mr Gurley’s death,” said Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson.
