Brooklyn, NY – Civil rights activist Reverend Al Sharpton on Saturday called for an investigation into the shooting death of an unarmed man by a New York police officer inside a dark stairwell at a Brooklyn housing project.
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New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton said the Thursday night shooting of Akai Gurley, 28, might have been unintentional, with the officer’s gun accidentally discharging.
Sharpton, speaking Saturday at the Harlem headquarters of his National Action Network civil rights group, called on the Brooklyn district attorney to perform a full investigation into the incident.
“They (police) are saying it was an accident. We are saying how do they know until there is a thorough investigation,” Sharpton said.
Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson said in a statement Friday the shooting “warrants an immediate, fair and thorough investigation.”
Sharpton was joined on stage Saturday by Gurley’s widow and two-year-old daughter. He said the unarmed man’s death was the latest in a string of incidents across the country in which police are accused of using excessive force.
He pointed to the case of Eric Garner, who died in July after being placed in a banned chokehold by a New York City police officer, and the August shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, in Ferguson, Missouri.
“From Staten Island to Ferguson, now back to Brooklyn in the Pink Houses, it’s time for us to stop ducking the issue and dealing with the issue of police misconduct,” Sharpton said, referring to the informal name of the housing project where the incident unfolded.
A Missouri grand jury is currently deciding whether to indict the white police officer who shot Brown. The teen’s death kicked off weeks of angry protests in Ferguson and calls for officer Darren Wilson’s immediate arrest.
In the Brooklyn shooting incident, a rookie officer performing what is known as a vertical patrol of the stairwells of the Louis H. Pink Houses in the East New York neighborhood fired off one shot, striking Gurley in the chest.
Officer Peter Liang, 27, was carrying a lit flashlight and unholstered his gun as he entered the dark stairwell, police said. Gurley was using the stairwell because of a long wait for an elevator, police said.
“What happened last night was a very unfortunate tragedy,” Police Commissioner Bratton said on Friday. “It appears to be an accidental discharge with no intention to strike anybody at this time,” Bratton said.
He also called Gurley a “total innocent.”
City police often conduct “vertical patrols” inside public housing by going from roofs down staircases that sometimes are havens for crime. Police Commissioner William Bratton has said the patrols are needed, and the development where Gurley was shot had recently seen a shooting, robberies and assaults.
Officer Peter Liang and his partner, also new to the force, were patrolling a pitch-dark stairwell with flashlights late Thursday, police said. Gurley, 28, was leaving his girlfriend’s apartment after she had braided his hair, according to the girlfriend, who is not his daughter’s mother.
Police said the officers walked down the stairs onto an eighth-floor landing when Gurley and his girlfriend opened a stairwell door one floor down, after giving up on waiting for an elevator. Police said Liang, patrolling with his gun drawn, fired without a word and apparently by accident, hitting Gurley from a distance of about 10 feet.
Mallory, the former public housing resident, said an officer should never patrol a building with a gun drawn.
“What are you saying, people who live in developments are animals, or something?” he asked.
Bratton said officers generally have discretion on whether to draw their weapons based on what they are encountering or believe they may encounter.
It was unclear how long the stairway’s lights had been out or whether there had been complaints. The New York City Housing Authority did not answer those questions Saturday, saying only that the shooting was tragic and that housing officials would “continue to work with the NYPD and our residents to make our properties as safe as possible.”
The fatal shooting came a decade after 19-year-old Timothy Stansbury was shot dead by a startled officer on a Brooklyn rooftop of a housing complex. His family got a $2 million settlement with the city.
Liang, 26, has been placed on modified duty. Under standard policy, police internal affairs investigators won’t be able to question him until prosecutors have decided whether to file criminal charges. Brooklyn District Attorney Kenneth Thompson has called the shooting “deeply troubling” and said it warrants “an immediate, fair and thorough investigation.”
New York Assemblyman-elect Charles Barron organized a protest march on Saturday evening from the shooting scene to the police department office that patrols housing developments.
In a statement, march organizers said there was nothing accidental about Gurley’s shooting.
“This is the deadly consequence of the increasing militarization of the police, from New York City to Ferguson — and beyond.”
Deal!!
On the condition that there is an honest probe into you and your ENTIRE network. This would include all your finances, your income, your associates, the “causes” you’ve been involved with such as Towana Brawley etc.
Shady Not Too Sharpton, you are gonna rot in jail.
Didn’t know Harlem has become a borough of New York…
As a certified NRA firearms instructor, we teach that there is no such thing as an “accidental” shooting. Any unintended discharge of a firearm is a negligent discharge.
In the case at hand the rookie committed two deadly mistakes that his companion (and, I assume, his training officer) should have called him on. Firstly, his gun was in his hand. Absent any threat, it should have remained in his holster. Secondly, and worse, I cannot imagine that anyone associated with firearms is unaware of Rule 4 which states “Keep your finger off of the trigger until your sights are on the target.”
I suppose that the City will have to pay a hefty sum and the PBA will, as usual, whine about the dangers of the job and “split second decisions” but these recurrent incidents of Police, misconduct and reckless behavior will continue until we can hold individual miscreant cops personally responsible for their actions. There’s something about perhaps having to personally pay a seven figure settlement that will get someone’s attention.
Obviously, when someone is shot there needs to be an investigation.
Yas, yas laying their lives on the line, yada yada. Listen, sonny, I’ve had my share of lead sent in my direction and I have scars (not to mention the disability checks) to prove it. Yes, police work can be dangerous but so can firefighting, construction work or, for that matter, commercial fishing. Cops are different. The are given extraordinary powers of arrest and the use of force. They are responsible for the just use of those powers and no excuses for the misuse of those powers, whether willful or unintentional, are acceptable. I have posted that a cop’s job is to make sure that citizens can get home safe each night. It is not a requirement for them to do likewise. When I joined the service I was taught that a soldier’s job was to catch bullets for civilians. Cops want it both ways. Unfettered authority and no responsibility. The cops are supposed to protect us from crime but who protects us from the cops?
We’re planning on having Sharpton march with us in East Ramapo. So much has been uncovered in the past few days, it’s astounding.