Family of Akai Gurley planning to sue city for $50m in fatal NYPD shooting

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Family of Akai Gurley planning to sue city for $50m in fatal NYPD shooting

Nicky Woolf in New York
Thursday 29 January 2015 23.06 GMT

The family of Akai Gurley, the unarmed man shot by police in an unlit Brooklyn housing project stairwell in November 2014, have filed paperwork that begins the process of suing the city, the housing authority, the NYPD and the two officers involved in his death.

Gurley was shot in the stairwell of the Louis H Pink houses in East New York, Brooklyn, by officer Peter Liang. Liang and his partner, Shaun Landau, who were both rookie officers, were conducting a routine patrol of the block when they encountered Gurley in the stairwell.

The case added to heightened tensions across the US over police brutality, after the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri and the death of Eric Garner in Staten Island earlier that year.

On Thursday, lawyers representing the family filed a notice of claim with the city comptroller’s office, the first step toward a lawsuit. The city can now choose whether to opt for a hearing, or move straight to the lawsuit. A separate notice was filed against the housing authority.

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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jan/29/akai-gurley-nypd-lawsuit-fatal-shooting

[Warren Stupidity]

1. FIFTY MILLION? THAT IS RIDICULOUS!

They should be suing for at least 500 Million.

[pkdu]

2. I hope they named that fucker Lynch in the suit. n/t

[99th_Monkey]

3. I totally wish all these settlements triggered by bully & killer-cops

...were paid out of the police retirement funds & pensions, rather than General Funds of cities already
struggling to keep their infrastructures in repair and their schools open.

Now THAT would have an immediate effect of stopping all the police abuse
of unarmed innocent citizens in a heart-beat.

[libdem4life]

5. I like your idea, too. There are ways to deal with these things appropriately.

[libdem4life]

4. Cops should have to carry personal liability insurance like many professionals have to carry Errors

and Omissions insurance. That would protect City Governments from suits or internal insurance claims, which ultimately hurts the average person/business person living in the city. It might make them think a couple of times before blowing someone away. And just like E&O and any other kind of insurance, if you cause claims to be paid, the cost goes up.