The rookie NYPD officer who shot and killed an unarmed man in a New York stairwell last month, was busy straight after the incident contacting his union representative instead of calling for medical help for the dying man.
According to police sources who spoke with the Daily News, officer Peter Liang, who shot 28-year-old Akai Gurley once in the chest after being startled in a dark housing development stairwell, spent six and a half minutes texting his union rep while Gurley bled out on the floor.
“That’s showing negligence,” a law enforcement source said. “The guy is dying and you still haven’t called it in?”
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The sources also told the Daily News that to add to the tragedy surrounding Gurley’s death, the officers involved were not supposed to be doing a patrol in the stairways.
Kenneth Montgomery, a lawyer representing Gurley’s parents, argued that the situation represented a clear perversion of the law.
“I would be surprised if it is not at least presented to a grand jury,” Montgomery said. “It’s a debacle and it speaks of criminal negligence.”
The NYPD has declined to comment on the incident thus far.