Peter Liang is a former cop whose short career began to unravel in the darkened stairwell of a New York housing project.
Kim Ballinger is a young mother left to raise a daughter alone after her partner’s life was cut short in a police shooting.
Liang, 28, was found guilty of manslaughter and official misconduct in February in the shooting death of Akai Gurley, 28. On Thursday, he met with Ballinger, Gurley’s domestic partner.
The unusual meeting at the offices of Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson was brief and subdued, according to attorneys for Liang and Ballinger, who were present.
“He said how sorry he was that she had lost a loved one,” attorney Paul Shechtman said of Liang. “He said how difficult a year it had been for him and could only imagine how difficult it was for her.”
The fatal shooting in the stairwell was “the last thing in the world that he intended or could imagine,” Liang said, according to Shechtman.
Ballinger did not accept his apology, according to her attorney, Scott Rynecki.
“She looked him right in the eye and said, ‘I just want to let you know that your actions that night have left my daughter without a father, have left me without a partner,’ ” Rynecki recalled.
Gurley’s death “turned her life upside-down,” Ballinger told the ex-cop.
Liang apologized one more time. But Ballinger wasn’t looking for an apology, her lawyer said.
Liang’s legal team had been trying to set up the encounter for months so he could apologize.
But Ballinger was there merely because she “wanted the opportunity to tell him face to face how his reckless actions affected her and her family,” according to Rynecki.
Liang and Ballinger shook hands, and the encounter ended.
The day before the meeting, Thompson recommended house arrest but no jail time for Liang, who had been fired immediately after his conviction.
Thompson wrote the sentencing judge with a recommendation of five years of probation, including six months of home confinement with electronic monitoring and 500 hours of community service. Liang could get up to 15 years in prison at sentencing April 14.
“Mr. Liang has no prior criminal history and poses no future threat to public safety,” Thompson said in a statement Wednesday. “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.”
Gurley’s aunt, Hertencia Petersen, said his family was outraged.
“This is an added injustice done to Akai and our family and a failure on the part of the D.A. to value black lives,” she said.
Petersen accused Thompson of reneging on an electoral promise to “not allow officers to act as if they are above the law” and said the recommendation sent “a message that officers can continue to kill black New Yorkers without consequences.”
Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel of the NAACP’s Legal Defense and Education Fund, said in a statement that Thompson’s decision “reinforces the sense that there are two justice systems — one for the police and one for civilians — where police officers, even when convicted of taking the life of an innocent person, can trust that prosecutors will not recommend that the officer serve time in jail.”
Liang, an Asian-American who had been on the job 18 months, was on patrol in the dark stairwell of a Brooklyn housing project in November 2014 when he fired his gun. He testified that it was an accidental discharge. The bullet ricocheted off a wall and struck Gurley, an African-American, in the chest; he died at a hospital.
Defense lawyers called the shooting a tragedy, not a crime. Prosecutors argued that Liang was reckless and was more concerned about his story than helping Gurley.
“There is no evidence … that he intended to kill or injure Akai Gurley,” Thompson said in the statement. “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.”
Thousands rallied across the nation last month in support of Liang, calling the shooting a tragic accident.
A group calling itself the Coalition of Justice for Liang staged rallies from Boston to Los Angeles, with supporters claiming that the officer was subjected to “selective prosecution.”
Liang’s trial garnered attention beyond New York because of the controversy over allegations that police are too quick to use lethal force, sometimes against unarmed people. Outrage over police shootings or excessive force has spurred protest movements in major cities such as Chicago, Baltimore and New York.
In the most well-known cases — the fatal shootings of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Walter Scott in North Charleston, South Carolina, and the death of Freddie Gray while in police custody in Baltimore — the victims were unarmed black men.
Gurley’s death came a few months after Eric Garner died as police tried to arrest him on Staten Island. The chokehold death of Garner, an unarmed 43-year-old, sparked street protests, a review of police procedures and calls for a federal civil rights investigation. A grand jury declined to prosecute the officer.