NYC officer charged in stairwell shooting of unarmed man
Criminal charges will be unsealed against a rookie police officer who fired into a darkened stairwell at a New York City housing complex, killing an unarmed black man who had been waiting for an elevator.
The case was closely watched following the mass protests and calls for reform of the grand jury system after a New York City grand jury refused to indict a white police officer in the chokehold death of Eric Garner, an unarmed black man, and a Missouri grand jury's decision not to indict a white officer in the death of Michael Brown, a black 18-year-old who was also unarmed.
The man killed in the stairwell, 28-year-old Akai Gurley, was black. The officer charged, Peter Liang, is Asian-American.
