NYC settles fatal Akai Gurley wrongful death lawsuit for $4 million

Friends of Akai Gurley touch his casket at the Brown Memorial Baptist Church on December 5, 2014 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City.

The two cops then walked down, stepped around the body and began arguing about who should call the supervisor as Gurley lay dying.

According to the New York Daily News, both the city and New York City Housing Authority are shelling out cash for the multi-million-dollar settlement.

The killing of Gurley and the results of the settlement have also acted as learning opportunity for the police department as well as the city.

Gurley was an unarmed Black man killed in the stairwell of his Brooklyn public housing by Peter Liang, a rookie police officer found guilty of manslaughter, whose sentence was commuted to probation and community service in April. Gurley’s death, as with those of other unarmed black men at the hands of police, sparked nationwide protests and debate about police tactics and allegations of institutional racism.

Ballinger’s wrongful death suit accused ex-officers Liang and his partner, Shaun Landau, of negligent and reckless misconduct in the November 2014 shooting.

The case became a flashpoint for police accountability.

Gurley’s death had taken place amidst strong protests in the country after the police had killed two black men, Eric Garner in NY and Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.

That conviction led to the largest scale activism by Asian-Americans since the 1992 Los Angeles riots. Efforts to reach a lawyer for Mr. Liang and the city’s Law Department late Monday were unsuccessful.

Liang’s supporters said he has been made a scapegoat for past injustices.

“For 150 years, there’s been a common phrase in America: ‘Not a Chinaman’s chance, ‘ which means if you’re Chinese in America, there’s no hope for you”, said former NYC comptroller John Liu in an address to a crowd of protestors outside the trial, as reported by Gothamist.

In February, a Brooklyn jury convicted Liang of second-degree manslaughter, a felony, but Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun reduced the charge to criminally negligent homicide.

The City of NY will have to pay over US$4.1 million in a wrongful death settlement to the family of Akai Gurley, according to a family lawyer, the Daily News reported Monday.