NYC to pay settlement of $4M to Black family of Akai Gurley [No Jail Time for Shook NYPD Cop Convicted of Manslaughter - community service & pay $25k]

NYPD Cop Entered Housing Project with 9mm Drawn on "Routine Check" From [HERE] NYC has agreed to pay over $4 million to settle a wrongful death claim filed by the family of Akai Gurley, the unarmed black man who was fatally shot by a cop in the stairwell of a Brooklyn housing project, the Daily News has learned.

The city and NYCHA are both contributing to the settlement — and the ex-police officer who escaped jail time for Gurley’s death in the Pink Houses is paying a price too.

Former cop Peter Liang, will pay $25,000 to Kimberly Ballinger, the mother of Gurley’s young daughter Akaila.

The city’s on the hook for $4.1 million and the New York City Housing Authority is paying $400,000.

The money will be put into a fund for Akaila which can’t be touched without court approval until she is 18. But the money will be invested in rock-solid annuities that will actually provide the girl with an estimated $10 million over the course of her lifetime.

Gurley, 28, was a resident of the Louis Pink Houses in East New York. The night he died, he’d gone to the seventh-floor home of friend Melissa Butler.

The two of them decided to go out, and because the elevator wasn’t working, took the stairs to the lobby.

Liang and Landau, both 28, were performing a vertical patrol in the building and entered the pitch-dark stairwell one floor above Gurley and Butler.

Liang had his gun out (a 9-millimeter semiautomatic) and his finger on the trigger which is a violation of NYPD procedure.

Liang testified that he accidentally fired one shot that ricocheted off the wall and struck Gurley in the chest.

The mortally wounded man staggered down to the fourth floor where he collapsed.

Liang was convicted in February by a Brooklyn jury of manslaughter, but Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun reduced the charge to criminally negligent homicide and sentenced the ex-cop — the rookie was fired upon being convicted of a felony — to 800 hours of community service.

The senseless shooting was made worse by Liang and Landau arguing for two minutes over who should call their supervisor as Gurley was fighting for his life. Butler frantically conducted chest compressions with instruction from a neighbor who called 911. Landau was also booted off the force. [MORE]

The episode promised to bring scrutiny to a longtime police practice of officers drawing their weapons when patrolling stairwells in housing projects. [MORE]

The city made two other high-profile payouts recently to the families of unarmed black men who suffered police-involved deaths. In January 2015 it paid $3.9 million to the family of Bronx teen Ramarley Graham, 18, who was shot inside his home on Feb. 2, 2012 after being chased by an officer who thought he had a gun.

Six months later, the city paid $5.9 million to the estate of Eric Garner — who died after an undercover cop put him in an illegal chokehold in July 2014.

Obviously, these payouts do not stop white supremacy and the government murder of Black people.