No jail for Peter Liang, NYPD officer convicted in Akai Gurley manslaughter, Brooklyn DA says
A prosecutor will ask a judge not to give jail time to an NYPD officer convicted of accidentally firing a stray shot into a dark public housing stairwell that killed an unarmed man, a recommendation that the victim’s family said “diminishes” his death.
Brooklyn District Attorney Kenneth Thompson said Wednesday that Officer Peter Liang acted recklessly, but he didn’t intend to kill 28-year-old Akai Gurley. Gurley’s family said they were “outraged” by the recommendation and would implore state Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun to ignore it and sentence Liang to time in prison at a court proceeding next month.
“Peter Liang has not served a single day in jail, and he must be held accountable,” Gurley’s family said in a statement. “The district attorney’s inadequate recommendation diminishes what Peter Liang did. It diminishes Akai’s death.”