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Officer’s Errant Shot Kills Unarmed Brooklyn Man

Late Thursday night in this dim stairwell of a Brooklyn housing project, Officer Peter Liang accidentally killed Akai Gurley, 28.Credit...Robert Stolarik for The New York Times

Two police officers prepared to enter the pitch-black eighth-floor stairwell of a building in a Brooklyn housing project, one of them with his sidearm drawn. At the same time, a man and his girlfriend, frustrated by a long wait for an elevator, entered the seventh-floor stairwell, 14 steps below. In the darkness, a shot rang out from the officer’s gun, and the 28-year-old man below was struck in the chest and, soon after, fell dead.

The shooting, at 11:15 p.m. on Thursday, invited immediate comparison to the fatal shooting of an unarmed man in Ferguson, Mo. But 12 hours later, just after noon on Friday, the New York police commissioner, William J. Bratton, announced that the shooting was accidental and that the victim, Akai Gurley, had done nothing to provoke a confrontation with the officers.

Indeed, as the investigation continued into Friday night, a leading theory described an instance of simple, yet tragic, clumsiness on the part of the officer. Mr. Gurley was not armed, the police said.

The episode promised to bring scrutiny to a longtime police practice of officers drawing their weapons when patrolling stairwells in housing projects.

The shooting occurred in the Louis H. Pink Houses in the East New York neighborhood. The housing project had been the scene of a recent spate of crimes — there have been two robberies and four assaults in the development in the past month, two homicides in the past year, and a shooting in a nearby lobby last Saturday, Mr. Bratton said.

Additional officers, many new to the Police Department, were assigned to patrol the buildings, including the two officers in the stairwell on Thursday night, who were working an overtime tour.

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Bratton Calls Police Shooting Accidental

William J. Bratton, the New York police commissioner, said that the fatal shooting of an unarmed man by a police officer in Brooklyn Thursday was accidental and that the victim was a “total innocent.”

NEW YORK POLICE DEPARTMENT (NYPD) - AP CLIENTS ONLY New York - November 21, 2014 SOUNDBITE (English) William J. Bratton, NYPD Commissioner: “Based on the radio transmissions and some of the statements that we have reviewed at this point in the investigation, that’s why we are indicating it appears to an accidental discharge, no intention to strike anybody at this time.” SOUNDBITE (English) William J. Bratton, NYPD Commissioner: “The deceased is a, based on our preliminary investigation, total innocent. He just happened to be in that hallway as the officers were entering the adjacent hallway one landing up. Was not engaged in any criminal activity of any type. He and the young women he was with were just entering that hallway. They attempted, based on our investigation, to get an elevator, but the elevator was delayed so they decided to walk down the darkened stairway. As best we can tell, they entered the seventh floor landing at exactly the same time as the officers were entering the eighth floor landing.”

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William J. Bratton, the New York police commissioner, said that the fatal shooting of an unarmed man by a police officer in Brooklyn Thursday was accidental and that the victim was a “total innocent.”CreditCredit...Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times

Having just inspected the roof, the officers prepared to conduct what is known as a vertical patrol, an inspection of a building’s staircases, which tend to be a magnet for criminal activity or quality-of-life nuisances.

Both officers took out their flashlights, and one, Peter Liang, 27, a probationary officer with less than 18 months on the job, drew his sidearm, a 9-millimeter semiautomatic.

Officer Liang is left-handed, and he tried to turn the knob of the door that opens to the stairwell with that hand while also holding the gun, according to a high-ranking police official who was familiar with the investigation and who emphasized that the account could change.

It appears that in turning the knob and pushing the door open, Officer Liang rotated the barrel of the gun down and accidentally fired, the official said. He and the other officer both jumped back into the hallway, and Officer Liang shouted something to the effect that he had accidentally fired his weapon, the official said.

Mr. Gurley had spent the past hours getting his hair braided at a friend’s apartment. Neighbors said he had posted photos of himself on an online site for models, featuring his tattoos, his clothing and his muscular frame.

He and his girlfriend, Melissa Butler, waited for an elevator on the seventh floor, but it never came, so they opened the door to the dark stairwell instead. An instant later, the shot was fired. Mr. Gurley and Ms. Butler were probably unaware that the shot came from a police officer’s gun.

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Kimberly Michelle Ballinger, the domestic partner of Akai Gurley, left, picking up their daughter at a day care center on Friday.Credit...Uli Seit for The New York Times

“The cop didn’t present himself, he just shot him in the chest,” Janice Butler, Ms. Butler’s sister, said. “They didn’t see their face or nothing.”

Mr. Gurley made it two flights down, to the fifth floor, where he collapsed. Melissa Butler called 911 from a lower floor, the official said.

Officer Liang and his partner came upon Mr. Gurley and called in the injury on the police radio, saying it was the result of an accidental discharge, the official said.

Mr. Gurley was taken to Brookdale Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Following protocol, Officer Liang was relieved of his gun and his badge pending an investigation.

Commissioner Bratton called Mr. Gurley “a total innocent” and said the shooting was “an unfortunate accident.” The victim was not engaged in any activity other than trying to walk down the stairs, Mr. Bratton said.

Mayor Bill de Blasio was also quick to offer his condolences to Mr. Gurley’s family. “This is a tragedy,” he said.

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Akai Gurley, in a photograph that was posted to his profile on ExploreTalent, a casting website for actors and models.

About 6:45 p.m. on Friday, the mayor, accompanied by his wife, Chirlane McCray, and Mr. Bratton, arrived at the Red Hook East Houses to visit the home of Mr. Gurley’s domestic partner, Kimberly Michelle Ballinger, 25.

They spent a little more than 10 minutes there and left without making any comment.

Earlier, Mr. Bratton said that whether an officer should draw his weapon while on patrol when there was no clear threat was a matter of discretion.

“There’s not a specific prohibition against taking a firearm out,” he said, adding, “As in all cases, an officer would have to justify the circumstances that required him to or resulted in his unholstering his firearm.”

The president of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, Patrick J. Lynch, declined to say anything about the officer, but commented on the conditions of stairwells in projects, including the setting of the shooting.

“The Pink Houses are among the most dangerous projects in the city, and their stairwells are the most dangerous places in the projects,” he said. “Dimly lit stairways and dilapidated conditions create fertile ground for violent crime, while the constant presence of illegal firearms creates a dangerous and highly volatile environment for police officers and residents alike.”

The Brooklyn district attorney, Kenneth P. Thompson, issued a statement that questioned the condition of the lighting in the stairwell.

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At left, William J. Bratton, the New York police commissioner, and Mayor Bill de Blasio, accompanied by his wife, Chirlane McCray, arriving at the home of Mr. Gurley to pay condolences.Credit...Uli Seit for The New York Times

“Many questions must be answered, including whether, as reported, the lights in the hallway were out for a number of days, and how this tragedy actually occurred,” Mr. Thompson said.

Neighbors said darkened stairwells were nothing new in the Pink Houses. “The staircases from eight down are dark,” said Mattie Dubose, a resident. “If you want to walk in them, you need an escort.”

The Police Department is still dealing with the fallout over the death of Eric Garner, a Staten Island man who died after a confrontation with the police in July. The department sought to defuse tension on Friday both by naming the officer in the shooting — an unusual step — and by noting repeatedly that the victim was blameless.

At City Hall, aides to the mayor were well aware of the imminent decision by a grand jury on the police shooting in Ferguson and the charged atmosphere that the death of an unarmed black man can create.

The mayor and Mr. Bratton conferred by telephone several times on Friday morning. Deputy Commissioner Benjamin B. Tucker spoke with the Rev. Al Sharpton about the shooting and the city’s response. The chief of the Police Department’s community affairs bureau, Joanne Jaffe, went to Mr. Gurley’s home in Red Hook, Brooklyn, and was with relatives when his young daughter was told of her father’s death.

Ms. Ballinger, the mother of Mr. Gurley’s young daughter, and his sister, Akisha Pringle, were scheduled to appear with Mr. Sharpton at an event on Saturday.

“She’s got to explain to her 2-year-old old why her father did not pick her up from school today and why he was not home to play with him as is their routine,” Kirsten Foy of the National Action Network, Mr. Sharpton’s organization, said after meeting with the family.

The officer’s future is unclear beyond an expected interview he will give to police superiors. It was not known whether he could face criminal prosecution.

“The cops have tremendous leeway with self-defense cases, but less leeway with a case like this,” said Eugene O’Donnell, a former prosecutor who teaches at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan. “A life was lost, and you are going to have to account for it.”

A similar shooting occurred in January 2004, when Officer Richard S. Neri Jr. killed Timothy Stansbury Jr., 19, on a roof at the Louis Armstrong Houses in Brooklyn. A grand jury declined to indict Officer Neri after he gave emotional testimony that he had unintentionally fired; he was startled, he said, when Mr. Stansbury pushed open a rooftop door in a place where drug dealing was rampant.

On Friday night in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn, a next-door neighbor of Officer Liang described him as cautious and helpful. “He wouldn’t mess around or do anything out of the ordinary,” said the neighbor, Ronald Chan, 24.

When Mr. Chan learned about the shooting, he said he was shocked and could not believe someone as cautious as his neighbor could have been involved.

“I think it was an honest mistake, because safety first,” he said. “Why would he do that? It sounds like an accident.”

Reporting was contributed by Matt Flegenheimer, Michael M. Grynbaum, Benjamin Mueller, James C. McKinley Jr., Marc Santora, Nate Schweber, Jeffrey E. Singer and Alex Vadukul, and research by Alain Delaquérière.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 1 of the New York edition with the headline: City Officer’s Errant Shot Kills an Unarmed Man. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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