Peter Liang Case: Trial, Sentence, and Civil Settlement

The Peter Liang case centers on a rookie NYPD officer who fatally shot Akai Gurley, an unarmed 28-year-old Black man, in a darkened Brooklyn stairwell on November 20, 2014. Liang was convicted of second-degree manslaughter in February 2016, becoming the first NYPD officer convicted of an on-duty shooting in more than a decade. Two months later, the trial judge reduced the verdict to criminally negligent homicide and sentenced him to five years of probation and 800 hours of community service, with no prison time.¹²

The Shooting in the Stairwell

Liang and his partner, Officer Shaun Landau, were on a “vertical patrol” of the Louis H. Pink Houses in East New York — a routine walk-through of the stairwells and hallways of the NYCHA complex. Liang had graduated from the police academy in January 2014 and had roughly 18 months on the job.³

The officers took the elevator to the eighth floor and worked their way down. The seventh-floor stairwell was nearly pitch dark. Liang entered with his gun drawn. He said a sudden noise startled him, and he fired a single round. The bullet ricocheted off a wall and struck Gurley in the chest as he walked with his girlfriend, Melissa Butler, on a lower floor. Gurley was unarmed, and neither officer had indicated they perceived a threat.³⁴

Gurley was pronounced dead at Brookdale Hospital at 11:55 p.m. He had grown up in Brooklyn and was living at the Pink Houses with his girlfriend Kimberly Ballinger and their two-year-old daughter, Akaila.⁵

What Happened After the Gun Went Off

The minutes after the shot mattered almost as much as the shot itself. Neither officer went to Gurley. Liang later testified that he and Landau argued for 30 to 45 seconds about what to do and that he did not initially believe anyone had been hit.⁶ Butler tried to resuscitate Gurley on the landing while the officers stood by. Nearly 20 minutes passed before they radioed in the discharge.⁷

Asked why he did not perform CPR, Liang said he thought it “wiser to wait for professional medical aid.”⁸ Landau, testifying for the prosecution under an immunity agreement, said he “didn’t feel qualified to perform CPR” and blamed his academy training.⁹ Liang testified he had been given the answers to the academy CPR exam and never practiced on a mannequin, describing himself as only “sort of” trained.¹⁰

The Charges and the Trial

Brooklyn District Attorney Kenneth P. Thompson brought the case to a grand jury, which indicted Liang in February 2015 on manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, assault, and official misconduct. Liang pleaded not guilty and was released without bail.¹¹¹²

At trial in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn, prosecutors argued that Liang handled his weapon recklessly, drawing his gun without justification and placing his finger on the trigger against his training. They emphasized his failure to call for help or render aid. The defense called the discharge a tragic accident and suggested the gun’s trigger spring may have been defective.⁷

A key moment came in deliberations. Jurors asked to handle Liang’s NYPD-issued Glock 9mm and pull the trigger themselves. Prosecutors had shown that the trigger pull on his weapon measured 11.5 pounds, on the higher end for the model. Jurors concluded the force required made an accidental pull unlikely, which undercut Liang’s account that the gun simply went off when he was startled.¹³

On February 11, 2016, after slightly more than two days of deliberation, the jury convicted Liang of second-degree manslaughter and official misconduct. The NYPD fired him immediately. Landau, who had received immunity, was fired the next day at the direction of Commissioner Bill Bratton.¹⁴⁹

The Sentence and the Reduced Conviction

Thompson surprised many observers by recommending no prison time. He proposed five years of probation, six months of home confinement with electronic monitoring, and 500 hours of community service, saying Liang had no prior record, posed no future threat, and that incarceration was “not necessary to protect the public.” Members of Gurley’s family, who had welcomed the conviction, felt betrayed by the recommendation.¹⁵¹

On April 19, 2016, Justice Danny K. Chun went further than the prosecutors had asked. He used his authority to reduce the jury’s manslaughter verdict to criminally negligent homicide, finding the evidence supporting the manslaughter conviction “partially insufficient” and stating that the shooting was “essentially an accident.” He said shooting someone was “probably the last thing in his mind and probably never entered his mind at all,” and that video of Liang entering the building showed an officer with a “serious mind of doing his job.”¹⁶ The downgrade dropped the maximum possible sentence from 15 years to four.

Justice Chun then imposed five years of probation and 800 hours of community service. No prison. Thompson objected to the reduction and announced plans to appeal to have the original manslaughter verdict reinstated.²¹⁷

Both Sides Dropped Their Appeals

Liang’s team appealed to overturn the conviction entirely. The DA’s office appealed to restore the manslaughter charge. Thompson died of cancer on October 9, 2016, at age 50, and Acting District Attorney Eric Gonzalez took over.¹⁸

In December 2016, the two sides agreed to drop both appeals. Liang accepted his conviction and waived any right to challenge it in state or federal court. In return, the DA’s office agreed not to pursue reinstatement of the manslaughter charge. A spokesperson cited the “unlikelihood that we would prevail on our appeal” and called the deal the “best way to protect the integrity of the conviction.” Supporter Karlin Chan said Liang chose not to appeal to “put this behind him and spare Mr. Gurley’s family any further stress.”¹⁹

The Civil Settlement

Gurley’s family sued the City of New York, NYCHA, and Liang for wrongful death. In August 2016, Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Dawn Jimenez-Salta approved a settlement of about $4.5 million. The city paid $4.1 million, NYCHA paid $400,000, and Liang personally paid $25,000 to Kimberly Ballinger. Gurley’s family had insisted on Liang’s personal contribution as a condition of the deal. The funds were placed in a trust for Akaila Gurley. Landau, named in the original complaint, was released from the lawsuit and paid nothing.²⁰

Why the Case Divided Chinese Americans

Liang’s conviction triggered what activists called the largest mobilization of Chinese Americans since the 1982 killing of Vincent Chin. On February 20, 2016, nine days after the verdict, rallies took place in more than 30 states. The largest drew over 10,000 people to Cadman Plaza Park in Brooklyn, with major demonstrations in Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Boston. A White House petition demanding withdrawal of the indictment collected over 120,000 signatures.²¹²²

Supporters argued Liang had been made a scapegoat for the broader failures of American policing. They pointed to a disparity: white officers in the deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown had not been indicted, yet Liang, an Asian American officer in what appeared to be an accidental shooting, was the one convicted. Former New York City Comptroller John Liu invoked the phrase “Not a Chinaman’s chance” to argue Liang’s race made him an easier target.²³ Organizers used WeChat to mobilize rapidly; one “Civil Rights” channel gained over 10,000 followers within 10 days of the conviction.²¹

Not every Asian American rallied behind Liang. A coalition led by CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities published an open letter signed by dozens of groups, including the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, Asian Americans Advancing Justice, the Chinese Progressive Association, and the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum, arguing Liang must be held accountable regardless of his race and calling for solidarity with Black communities.²⁴ Counter-protesters carried signs reading “Jail Killer Cops.” Cathy Dang of CAAAV said some of the pro-Liang support was driven by a desire among certain Chinese Americans to be treated as equal to whites within the U.S. racial hierarchy.²⁵

The split cut along generational lines. Many first-generation Chinese immigrants, particularly those mobilized through WeChat, viewed the conviction as evidence of bias against Asian Americans. Second- and third-generation Asian Americans, along with legacy civil rights groups like OCA (Asian Pacific American Advocates), tended to emphasize solidarity with Black and Latino communities.²⁵

How the Case Fit Into the Wider Debate Over Police Accountability

Liang’s conviction stood out in a landscape where officers who killed civilians rarely faced criminal consequences. Legal analysts noted that public confidence in police was at a two-decade low at the time of the trial, driven in part by video from the deaths of Eric Garner in Staten Island and Walter Scott in South Carolina. That erosion of trust made jurors less inclined to accept an officer’s account at face value.¹³

Observers frequently compared the case to the 2004 shooting of Timothy Stansbury, another unarmed man killed by an NYPD officer in a dark stairwell. Then-Commissioner Raymond Kelly called that shooting “unjustified,” but a grand jury declined to indict Officer Richard Neri. Legal analysts suggested Neri avoided indictment in part because he testified before the grand jury, said his finger was not on the trigger, and provided evidence he had attempted CPR. Liang’s failure to render aid, and reports that he texted his union representative rather than help Gurley, likely influenced the jury.²³¹³

Delores Jones-Brown of John Jay College of Criminal Justice said the case did not represent a “new normal” in police accountability. She noted the irony that the system successfully prosecuted a minority officer for what was widely described as an accidental killing while failing to indict Officer Daniel Pantaleo, who is white, in the on-camera chokehold death of Eric Garner.¹⁷ Liang’s case also lacked the backing of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, the powerful police union that had publicly defended officers in other high-profile cases.²³

Thompson himself had drawn a line between the Liang case and the wider national moment, saying it was “about what happened in Brooklyn, not Ferguson or Staten Island.”²² His recommendation of no prison time drew objections from every side: Gurley’s family saw leniency for the man who killed him, and Liang’s supporters saw a prosecution they believed should never have been brought.

1
ABC7 New York. Appeal Dropped by Ex-NYPD Officer Peter Liang in Fatal Shooting
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The New York Times. Peter Liang, Ex-New York Police Officer, Sentenced in Akai Gurley Shooting Death
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Los Angeles Times. Former NYPD Officer Peter Liang Sentenced
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NAACP Legal Defense Fund. LDF on Peter Liang’s Sentence of No Prison Time for the Killing of Akai Gurley
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BuzzFeed News. The Life and Death of Akai Gurley
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The Guardian. NYPD Officer Peter Liang Testifies in Akai Gurley Case
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NBC News. NYPD Officer Peter Liang Guilty of Second-Degree Manslaughter
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WNYC. Officer Liang Found Guilty of Shooting in Public Housing Stairwell
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Reuters. Partner of NY Police Officer Convicted in Shooting Is Fired
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NBC News. Police Academy Instructor Who May Have Instructed Peter Liang Placed on Modified Duty
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WNYC. Officer Peter Liang Indicted in Akai Gurley Shooting
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NBC News. Chinese Community Divided Over NYPD Officer’s Indictment
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The Atlantic. Peter Liang Police Shooting
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The New York Times. Officer Peter Liang Convicted in Fatal Shooting of Akai Gurley in Brooklyn
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Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office. Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson’s Statement Regarding the Upcoming Sentencing of Peter Liang
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Georgia Law Review. The Problematic Prosecution of an Asian American Police Officer
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WNYC. Peter Liang Verdict and Sentence
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New York Post. Ken Thompson Was Not of Sound Mind in Final Months
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NBC News. Brooklyn DA Will Not Appeal Reduced Peter Liang Conviction
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NBC News. New York City, Peter Liang to Pay Over $4 Million in Settlement
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Swarthmore College Global Nonviolent Action Database. Chinese Americans Protest Conviction of NYPD Officer Peter Liang
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The Christian Science Monitor. How Chinese-American Protesters Are Invoking Black Lives Matter
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Mother Jones. Peter Liang Police Conviction
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CAAAV. Justice for Akai Gurley National Sign-On Letter
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The Guardian. Peter Liang, Akai Gurley Killing, and the Asian American Response