Human RightsNorth America

Grand Jury in US to decide on another shooting

388989_Akai Gurley

A New York City grand jury is considering whether to indict a police officer who shot dead an unarmed black man last month, says the local prosecutor.

Twenty-eight-year-old Akai Gurley was fatally shot on November 20 in Brooklyn by Probationary Officer Peter Liang, after Gurley entered the stairwell of his apartment building.

“I pledge to conduct a full and fair investigation and to give the grand jury all of the information necessary to do its job,” said Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson.

“I’m going to do it because it’s important to get to the bottom of what happened to Mr. Gurley, who was an innocent unarmed man who lost his life,” he added.

Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., who represents the section of Brooklyn where the incident occurred, said that the evidence showing that the bullet hit Gurley in his chest and then his heart implies the case is criminal not accidental.

Massive protests have been held in cities across the US recently in response to two grand juries failing to indict officers who killed two unarmed Black men.

White police officer Darren Wilson fatally shot Black teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in August and white officer Daniel Pantaleo strangled to death Michael Brown in New York City in July.

US police shoot and kill an average of 1,000 people a year, 1 in 4 of whom unarmed, according to a report by the Police Policy Studies Council.

Based on a recent study by the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, 313 black people were killed in 2012 by police officers, private security guards and members of the public and in most cases, the perpetrator was not indicted.

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