US cop spared jail for killing unarmed black man

A US judge has reduced the conviction of a former New York police officer involved in manslaughter over the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man in 2014.

On Tuesday, Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun in Brooklyn, New York, sentenced ex-Officer Peter Liang to five years of probation and 800 hours of community service for the death of 28-year-old African-American Akai Gurley.

Liang had faced up to 15 years in prison after a jury convicted him of manslaughter in February, however, the judge reduced his conviction to a lesser felony of criminally negligent homicide.

The incident happened on November 20, 2014, when Liang shot the 28-year-old father, who was unarmed while walking downstairs in a Brooklyn building.

Gurley (pictured below) was shot in the chest but police said Liang had fired apparently by accident.

The Chinese-American officer was patrolling at a public housing high-rise with his gun drawn when he said a sudden sound jolted him and he fired. The bullet ricocheted off a wall and hit Gurley on a lower floor.

Liang and his partner allegedly retreated from the scene instead of helping the injured man.

 “As I watched the video of the defendant entering the lobby of the Pink Houses, I couldn’t help but feel he was entering with the serious mind of protecting the people” there, Chun said.

“Shooting somebody never entered his mind. This was not an intentional act. This was an act of criminal negligence,” he added.

“I find incarceration to be unnecessary,” but “instead of sitting at home, I think he will be much more productive if he spends more time in community service.”

In response to the verdict, Gurley’s family said the sentence sends the message that police officers who kill people should not face serious consequences.

“It is this ongoing pattern of a severe lack of accountability for officers that unjustly kill and brutalize New Yorkers that allows the violence to continue," said the family in a statement.

Police brutality has become a major concern across the nation in recent years.

The US Justice Department is under intense pressure to review the use of brutal force by law enforcement officers.

A recent study has found that almost half of the people who die at the hands of the US police have some kind of mental or physical disability. The findings also reveal that most of the victims have been killed in situations where lethal force was not needed.

Large-scale demonstrations were held across the country in 2014 after a series of high-profile incidents of white police officers killing unarmed African-American men, including Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri; Tamir Rice in Cleveland, Ohio; Eric Garner in Staten Island, New York and Walter Scott in North Charleston, South Carolina.

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