Peter Liang, the former officer convicted of manslaughter, apologized to Akai Gurley’s domestic partner on Thursday, a day after the Brooklyn district attorney recommended house arrest and probation instead of jail time.
Liang met with Gurley’s partner, Kimberly Ballinger, a meeting about a month in the making. Their attorneys were at the meeting, too.
“Liang expressed his sorrow, specifically said he was sorry, apologized for what happened that night,” said Ballinger’s attorney, Scott Rynecki. “His exact words were, ‘I’m sorry, I’m really sorry.’”
Liang, 28, was convicted of manslaughter in February for the 2014 stairwell shooting death of Akai Gurley, also 28. Trial evidence showed that a single bullet from Liang’s service weapon ricocheted and struck Gurley, who was walking in an unlit stairway at the Louis H. Pink public housing project.
Rynecki said Ballinger did not accept his apology, and instead reminded him that it won’t bring Gurley back.
Ballinger “wanted to let him know that as a result of his actions that night, her daughter no longer has a father, she no longer has a partner and has become a single parent,” he said. “The apology doesn’t change things. It doesn’t bring Akai back.”
“It’s been a very difficult year for him and he was devastated by this, but he can only imagine how difficult it’s been for [Ballinger] and he was very sorry for her loss,” said Liang’s attorney, Paul Shechtman. “He did it because it was genuine. He said to her he wanted to do this before the trial, he wanted to do it when he testified.”
Several members of Akai Gurley’s family remained outraged, standing outside the Brooklyn district attorney’s office.
Hertencia Petersen, Gurley’s aunt, said she felt “appalled” and “discouraged” by the recommendation. Amid shouts of “traitor,” Petersen said she wondered when police officers would be held accountable for their actions.
“Akai Gurley was murdered again by DA Ken Thompson,” Petersen said. “This is an outrage to the family.”
She added: “All the family wanted from day one was for Peter Liang to be held accountable.”
Petersen warned “this is not the end,” and family members pledged to protest until Liang’s sentencing hearing on April 14.
On Wednesday, Thompson recommended five years of probation, including six months of house arrest with electronic monitoring, and 500 hours of community service instead of jail time. The sentence is ultimately up to Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun, who presided over the trial.
“Peter Liang was indicted, prosecuted and subsequently convicted by a jury because his reckless actions caused an innocent man to lose his life. There is no evidence, however, that he intended to kill or injure Akai Gurley,” Thompson said in a statement on Tuesday. “When Mr. Liang went into that building that night, he did so as part of his job and to keep the people of Brooklyn and our city safe.
“Mr. Liang has no prior criminal history and poses no future threat to public safety,” Thompson added. “Because his incarceration is not necessary to protect the public, and due to the unique circumstances of this case, a prison sentence is not warranted.”
Roger Wareham, an attorney for Melissa Butler, who was with Gurley in the stairwell when he died, said he’d never heard of any case in which a district attorney didn’t recommend jail following a conviction.
“Melissa’s reaction was all this was for nothing. It was crushing,” Wareham said, as Butler cried beside him. “Melissa’s courage has then got to be juxtaposed with the failure of courage of the district attorney.”
