City Council Looks Into Lighting And Safety In Wake Of Akai Gurley Death
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- The New York City Council Committee on Public Housing held a hearing Tuesday in response to the death of Akai Gurley, the unarmed man fatally shot by police in a Brooklyn stairwell last month.
Gurley, 28, was shot dead by rookie police officer Peter Liang on Nov. 20 in a dark stairwell at the Pink Houses in East New York in what police have called a tragic accident.
The panel is investigating the relationship between lighting and safety.
City Council To Look At Lighting And Safety In Wake Of Akai Gurley Death
Councilman Ritchie Torres opened the hearing with a bleak assesment of public housing in New York City.
"The Housing Authority has been so underfunded for so long that it does not have enough money to replace all the broken doors and all the broken locks and all the broken elevators that need repair," Torres said.
Louise Green, a tenant leader at the Pink Houses, blasted the New York City Housing Authority.
"When it hits the paper then they run around and do things," Green said.
City Council To Look At Lighting And Safety In Wake Of Akai Gurley Death
The Housing Authority acknowledged that when Gurley was killed, the stairwell had a fluorescent light that had failed due to a ballast problem, leaving only the ends of the bulbs dimly glowing, WCBS 880's Rich Lamb reported.
Councilwoman Vanessa Gibson was shocked to hear that repairs of problems such as that take an average of 8.9 days to fix.
"So, the light that was out in stairwell A of Pink Houses leading up to Akai Gurley's death, the issue with the ballast is considered a routine repair," said Gibson.
Advocates testifying at the hearing blame drastic cuts in government funding for what they described as disastrous conditions in city public housing buildings.
NYCHA Chief Shola Olatoye said to make public housing truly safer the agency needs additional funding, starting with $18 billion just to fix what's wrong, 1010 WINS' Mona Rivera reported.
Liang and his partner, also new to the force, were patrolling the stairwell between the seventh and eighth floors, according to police. The officers walked down the stairs onto an eighth-floor landing when Gurley and his girlfriend opened a stairwell door one floor down after giving up on waiting for an elevator, police said.
Liang fired apparently by accident, striking Gurley in the chest from a distance of about 10 feet, police said.
The Brooklyn district attorney announced a grand jury will consider criminal charges, and promised a full and fair investigation.
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