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Thousands rally for ex-officer who fatally shot Akai Gurley

Thousands rally for ex-officer who fatally shot Akai Gurley
Photo by Jason Speakman

Protesters faced off Downtown on Saturday over the conviction of a rookie police officer who fatally gunned down an unarmed Red Hook man in an East New York in 2014.

Some 10,000 supporters of Peter Liang filled Cadman Plaza two weeks after jurors found him guilty of killing Akai Gurley, claiming the death was an accident and that politicians and prosecutors are using the Chinese-American former cop as a “scapegoat” to placate public anger over shootings by white officers who have gone free.

A smaller group of Gurley supporters held a counterprotest across the street to support the conviction, waving signs that read “jail killer cops” while police separated the two groups across Cadman Plaza West.

Liang — a Bensonhurst resident who shot Gurley while patrolling a stairwell of a public housing building with his gun drawn — is facing up to 15 years behind bars, and will learn his fate next month.