BROOKLYN — Former NYPD officer Peter Liang met with the domestic partner of Akai Gurley, the man he was convicted of killing, Thursday morning and said he was sorry for her loss before the two ended the meeting with a handshake, according to the Gurley family’s lawyer.
Liang and Kimberly Ballinger met at the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office at about 10:30 a.m. where Liang also told her the fatal shooting of Gurley, 27, in a Pink Houses stairwell in 2014 was not something he “would ever intend or could ever imagine” happening, lawyer Paul Shechtman told DNAinfo.
The meeting, which was first reported by the New York Times, took place one day after DA Ken Thompson requested Liang receive five-years probation with six months of ankle-monitored home confinement during his sentencing on April 14.
Gurley’s family expressed anger on Wednesday with Thompson’s announcement.
“We are outraged at District Attorney Thompson’s inadequate sentencing recommendation,” the family said in a statement. “Officer Liang was convicted of manslaughter and should serve time in prison for his crime.”
Liang was found guilty of manslaughter on Feb. 11 was immediately fired by the NYPD.
Police also started a separate investigation into their police academy CPR training after it was revealed during the trial that neither Liang or his partner, Shaun Landau, knew how to properly administer the life-saving technique.
Ballinger told Liang how the shooting has hurt her and their daughter, Akaila.
“Ms. Ballinger responded by letting him know that because of his actions that night, she now has a 3-year-old who doesn’t have a father,” her lawyer, Scott Rynecki, told the New York Times. “She no longer has a partner, and her life has been turned upside down. And she let him know that Akai was a good, innocent man and a good father.”
