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Pallbearers carry the casket of Akai Gurley into Brown Baptist Memorial Church in Brooklyn before his wake Dec. 5, 2014.(Photo: John Minchillo, AP)
A New York City grand jury will hear evidence about a rookie police officer's killing of an unarmed black man in a darkened stairwell last month, the Brooklyn district attorney announced Friday.
Akai Gurley, 28, was shot once in the chest by Officer Peter Liang as he and his girlfriend opened an exit door into the unlighted stairway at a Brooklyn housing development Nov. 20. Residents used the stairs because the elevators often broke down, and the lights reportedly had been out for several days.
Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompsonsaid he would present the case to a grand jury "because it is important to get to the bottom of what happened."
"I pledge to conduct a full and fair investigation and to give the grand jury all of the information necessary to do its job," he said, rejecting calls for a special prosecutor. He did not offer a timetable for the panel to complete its work once impaneled.
Thompson previously called the shooting "deeply troubling."
A new light illuminates the stairwell where Akai Gurley was shot to death by rookie NYPD officer Peter Liang at the Louis Pink Houses public housing complex in Brooklyn early on Thanksgiving 2014.(Photo: John Minchillo, AP)
Liang, 27, and his partner were on patrol at the Louis H. Pink complex. He reportedly had his gun out and opened a stairwell door one floor above Gurley. The weapon fired, hitting Gurley.
Police Commissioner William Bratton said the shooting was an apparent accident that claimed a "totally innocent" life.
A memorial service for Gurley was held hours after Thompson's announcement. He will be buried Saturday.
Gurley was planning to surprise his mother for Thanksgiving by introducing her to her 2-year-old granddaughter.
"My son didn't deserve to die like that. All his dreams were taken away so innocently," his mother, Sylvia Palmer, who had traveled from Florida for the holiday, said at a news conference. "It's not right. I need justice for my son."
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