PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Philadelphia was among 40 different cities today where thousands of Chinese-Americans gathered to protest the manslaughter conviction of Peter Liang, the former New York City cop who accidentally shot and killed a man on the job in 2014.
Liang was a rookie cop on patrol with another rookie cop in a dangerous part of Brooklyn. He accidentally fired one round that ricocheted off a wall in a dark stairwell and it killed Akai Gurley.
“We would like to pledge for leniency,” said Nancy Zhang, who was among the many who helped organize the rallies. “He may be facing 15 years in prison, in a tragic accident.”
Protesters say the NYPD is to blame because Officer Liang should have been learning from a veteran cop.
“We feel the trial was unfair, from the prosecutor to the whole system.”
Others think Liang was made a scapegoat for other police involved deaths that happened previously.
“It happened after those other…Michael Brown’s tragedy. It happened after Eric Garner’s tragedy, and those are very different events.”
Chinese-Americans are asking for leniency ahead of Liang’s sentencing hearing in April.