Funeral services have been announced for the unarmed man who was fatally shot by a probationary NYPD officer in the stairwell of a Brooklyn housing development late last month.
Services for 28-year-old Akai Gurley will be held Friday afternoon at Brown Memorial Baptist Church in East New York, according to the National Action Network. Gurley was shot and killed Nov. 20 by officer Peter Liang at the Louis H. Pink Houses in what the NYPD has said was an accident. The city Medical Examiner's Office later ruled the shooting a homicide.
The Rev. Al Sharpton will deliver the eulogy at the funeral, which is open to the public. Sharpton runs the National Action Network and is also a talk-show host on MSNBC, which is owned by NBC 4 New York's parent company, NBCUniversal.
Police say Liang and his partner, who both had less than 18 months on the force, were conducting a floor-by-floor sweep of the building and had gone to the roof when they noticed there were no lights in the stairwell leading up to it.
Given the location and lack of light, Liang drew his weapon and a flashlight for safety reasons, police have said. The other officer kept his service weapon holstered.
As the officers were entering the eighth-floor landing, Gurley emerged on the seventh-floor landing. He heard a noise and turned to look up at the two officers a floor above him, a law enforcement source said. Then Liang fired, hitting Gurley 11 feet below him, according to police.
Gurley was shot in the chest. He stumbled down to his girlfriend, who was by that point on the fifth floor, and she tried to administer first aid, authorities said. Liang and his partner found the couple on the fifth floor; 911 had already been called. Gurley was pronounced dead at a hospital.
Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said that the shooting was an accident and called Gurley a "total innocent." Liang was placed on desk duty after the shooting.
Brooklyn District Attorney Kenneth Thompson and the NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau are both investigating Gurley's death.
