CIVIC CENTER — The NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau started investigating police academy training procedures after former officer Shaun Landau testified during the Peter Liang trial that he did not know how to properly administer CPR, officials said Tuesday.
Landau said he was certified in the life-saving technique, but did not give aid to Akai Gurley after a bullet fired from Liang's gun ricocheted off a Pink Houses stairwell wall and fatally struck the unarmed father.
“We will be interviewing every officer that was in their class to validate or not confirm statements made by those officers during the trial,” Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said during an unrelated press conference at NYPD headquarters.
“Under no circumstances will we tolerate any instructor in the New York City police department short circuiting the process with its instructions.”
Landau testified that he and Liang spent four minutes debating who should report the shot to their superiors before reentering the stairwell and finding Gurley’s girlfriend, Melissa Butler, trying to administer CPR.
Another officer, John Funk, said he received CPR training at the police academy in 2013, but did not get an opportunity to practice on a test dummy.
Liang was found guilty of manslaughter on Feb. 11 and Landau was booted from the force.
Bratton did not give a time frame for when the investigation was expected to conclude.