A judge Tuesday refused to throw out a manslaughter charge against the c♔op who accidentally shot and killed an unarmed man in a housing complex stairwell — as the officer’s la♎wyers accused the Brooklyn DA’s office 🔯of being biased against the NYPD.
Lawyer💙s for Officer Peter Liang maintained Akai Gurl🎐ey’s death was an accident, while maintaining DA Ken Thompson’s office has a double standard.
In a 44-page motion to dismiss manslaughter and reckless endangerment charges, Liang compared his case to a shooting involving a retired corrections officer who shot and killed an𓆉 unarmed straphanger during a dispute in a downtown Brooklyn subway station last March.
“It is hard — if not impossible — to reconcile the District Attorney’s prosecution for [Liang’s] accidental shooting with the decision of that same office not to prosecute, or even present to a grand jury, the fatal shooting of 32-year-old construction worker Gilbert Drogheo [last March] by retired corre🤡ctions officer, William Groomes,” the lawyers wrote.
But Danny Chun,ꦺ in a co♉urtroom filled with Gurley’s family and supporters, was not convinced, and said a trial date will be decided Sept. 29
Liang, 27, was on a vertical patrol in Brooklyn’s Pink Houses last November with his partner when he entered a darkened stairwell with his service weapon drawn. His gun discharged, and the bullet ricocheted off a wall, hittin🅘g Gurley in the chest on a landing below.
Thompson acknowledged that Liang did not 𒐪inte♍nd to kill Gurley, 28, but pointed out that Liang “had his finger on the trigger, and he fired the gun.”
After hearing the shot, Liang’s partner officer Shaun Landau asked, “What the f— happened?”
“It went off by accident,” a confused Liang replied.
The two then argued for four minutes about who should report the accident, as Gurley lay bleeding out in the stair💮case below.
“You call,” Liang allegedly said.
“No, you call,” Landau shot back.
In the case involving Groomes, prosecutors said there was a struggle for gun, which spared Groomes an ▨indictment.
A spok𓂃eswoman for Thompson, whose mother is a retired NYPD officer, said the bias charge is “absurd.”
“To suggest that this case has a similar set of facts to the Groomes case is preposterous,” a Thompson spokeswoman said in a statement. “In the Groomes case the deceased reached for Mr. Groomes’ hand and there was a 🥀🅷struggle over a gun. There was no struggle here, it was a completely different kind of discharge.”
Before the proceedings, Liang appeared nervous. After his motion was denied, proℱtesters, including Gurley’s aunt Herntencia Petersen yelled “Justice for Akai G♑urley.”
“We will be here everyday until justice is served,” said Gurley’s domestic partener, Kimberly Ballinger🐬.