Partner of Brooklyn Cop Accused of Manslaughter Grilled on Witness Stand

By LUIS GONZAEZ & MICHAEL ODMARK

The patrol partner of Peter Liang, the police officer on trial for killing Akai Gurley in the stairwell of a Brooklyn housing complex, was cross-examined on Thursday focusing on a two-minute discrepancy in reported response times to the accidental shooting based on previous statements he made.

In earlier testimony, Landau claimed that it only took two minutes from the moment his partner’s gun had fired for the pair to check to see if anyone had been hurt by the gunshot.

However, before the grand jury Landau said it took them four minutes. On this slender thread the defense lawyer tried to undermine the witness’s credibility.

Landau, testifying for the prosecution in Brooklyn Supreme Court, was also pressed for not telling Internal Affairs investigators that Liang allegedly had said “I am fired” after the shooting.

Another witness, pathologist Dr. Floriana Persethino, showed the jury a bullet fragment that had been damaged on one side, indicating that the bullet initially ricocheted off the wall before hitting Gurley in the heart and eventually traveling to his liver.

Earlier testimony indicated that the two officers watched over as Gurley’s friend, Melissa Butler, performed CPR. Butler, who did not have proper CPR certification, was receiving instruction from a neighbor on the phone with 911.

The defense team looked to highlight flaws in the first aid training by the police academy, alleging that officers were “fed questions and answers” before taking first aid exams.

Landau admitted to spending “a few minutes, maybe” learning CPR, adding that he was given two first aid handbooks but had not read them from cover to cover.

The defense argued based on the police academy handbook officers are taught not to make matters they believe to be bad, “worse”

When asked by the defense if he didn’t perform CPR because he “thought doing compressions to a man who was shot in the chest would make matters worse,” Landau replied “yes.”

“So you’re telling this jury that you weren’t as qualified as the woman kneeling over him?” asked the prosecutor.

“Yeah, I didn’t know what to do.”

Liang faces manslaughter charges.