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Judge Refuses to Toss Out Charges Against NYPD Officer Who Shot Akai Gurley

By Murray Weiss | June 23, 2015 8:05pm
 Officer Peter Liang enters Brooklyn Supreme Court on Feb. 11, 2015 to be arraigned for shooting Akai Gurley to death.
Officer Peter Liang enters Brooklyn Supreme Court on Feb. 11, 2015 to be arraigned for shooting Akai Gurley to death.
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DNAinfo/Rachel Holliday Smith

BROOKLYN — A Brooklyn judge refused to toss out the indictment against rookie NYPD Officer Peter Liang, who is accused of fatally shooting Akai Gurley in the stairwell of a Brooklyn housing project last November.

Judge Daniel Chun on Tuesday ordered Liang, 27, to stand trial on charges that he recklessly killed Gurley when his gun fired as he and his partner entered an eighth-floor landing during a vertical patrol inside the Pink Houses. 

In a courtroom filled with Gurley supporters, Chun said a trial date will be selected on Sept. 29.

On Nov. 20, Liang entered the stairwell with his gun drawn. He claimed the weapon fired accidentally as he pushed open the heavy metal door. The bullet ricocheted off the wall, striking Gurley who happened to be entering the stairwell one floor below.

Stephen Worth, Liang’s lawyer, claimed DA Kenneth Thompson’s is biased against the NYPD because prosecutors chose to pursue the case despite declining to present evidence to a grand jury in a prior unrelated fatal shooting of a straphanger by a retired corrections officer.  

In that case, the two men struggled over the guard’s weapon and it went off, the DA countered.