He claims his weapon accidentally discharged when he turned and saw Gurley opening the door to the 7th floor landing, fatally wounding him in the chest. Rookie cop Peter Liang was indicted on second degree manslaughter charges, reckless endangerment, criminally negligent homicide and official misconduct. Gurley was an unarmed African-American who was shot by police last November in the stairwell of the Pink Houses apartment complex in East New York, Brooklyn. “Today which would’ve been Akai’s 29th birthday, instead is a sad day for us and we just want justice,” said Kimberly Ballinger,Gurley’s domestic partner. Relatives of the late Akai Gurley and their attorney Scott Rynecki marked what would have been Gurley’s 29th birthday with a press conference in Downtown Brooklyn, demanding swift justice and pursuing a civil case against the officer, the city of New York, and the New York City Housing Authority and looking forward to the start of the criminal trial.

Relatives of the victim of a police officer’s unintentional shooting in a housing complex stairwell last year demanded on Thursday that the officer be punished and other measures to salve the wounds of grief.