NYPD ROOKIE COP KILLS UNARMED BLACK MAN IN STAIRCASE OF BROOKLYN'S PINK HOUSE PROJECTS

AKAI GURLEY

A rookie cop killed an unarmed, innocent man late Thursday night when his weapon accidentally discharged in a darkened stairwell of a Brooklyn housing project, NYPD Commissioner William Bratton said Friday.

"No dialogue was exchanged" before Officer Peter Liang shot Akai Gurley in the stairwell, where the men crossed paths, Bratton said. Gurley, a 28-year-old father of a 2-year-old, was unarmed.

"The deceased is totally innocent," Bratton said at a news conference yesterday. "This is a very unfortunate tragedy. It appears that this was an accidental discharge."

Liang, on the job fewer than 18 months, has been put on modified duty and stripped of his badge and gun during an internal investigation of the shooting, which happened inside of the Louis H. Pink Houses of East New York, on Linden Boulevard.

Just before the shooting, Gurley had been at a girlfriend's seventh-floor apartment in the building. The couple then took the stairs because the elevator was delayed. Liang and his partner were descending from the eighth floor, on "vertical patrol" to combat a crime uptick, including recent robberies, assaults and homicides.

After the 11:15 p.m. shooting, Liang and his partner left the scene but returned a short time later. Gurley, who police said was hit once in the chest, died at Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center at 11:55 p.m. The officers went to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center for tinnitus, ringing in the ears.

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-Brooklyn) said: "The senseless killing of another unarmed African-American male by the NYPD should shock the conscience of all New Yorkers and the nation. At this point, talk is cheap. The community demands action."