Both sides have presented their closing arguments in the manslaughter trial of New York City police officer Peter Liang for the fatal shooting of unarmed African American Akai Gurley. A jury will now consider the fate of Liang, who shot Gurley in the darkened stairwell of a Brooklyn housing project. Officer Liang said he was startled by a noise and flinched, accidentally firing his gun. But Assistant District Attorney Joseph Alexis said the shooting was no accident.
Joseph Alexis: “The gun did not just go off. This officer took his finger off of the frame of the gun, if it was ever there. He put his finger onto the trigger. He pointed the gun directly in the direction where the sound was. And he fired. And he shot. And the shot that he fired hit off the wall. It’s no accident that it hit off the wall steps away from where Akai Gurley stood. It’s no accident that that bullet then ripped through his heart and landed in his liver and killed him.”