Basis for Case in Brooklyn Police Shooting: No Threat Led Officer to Fire
Perhaps a symptom of what’s wrong with Hollywood’s penchant for overly dramatic and uncalled for gun scrums while searching.
Nonetheless, the circumstances surrounding Mr. Gurley’s death led to a manslaughter indictment this week, setting it apart from other well-publicized police encounters that took the lives of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and Eric Garner on Staten Island.
Criminal charges appeared more likely in the asphyxiation death of Mr. Garner; a cellphone camera captured the arrest, including Mr. Garner’s pleas for air as officers held him down.
But as a legal matter, the case against Officer Liang was stronger, and hinged on two factors: Unlike the officers in the Brown and Garner cases, Officer Liang declined to testify before a grand jury, and he did not claim he was acting against a perceived threat — making it difficult for him to argue he was using legitimate force.
“I can’t think of a case in any recent time where an officer took someone’s life and there was no explanation of why,” a senior prosecutor in Brooklyn said. “He had no justification defense.”
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