Akai Kareem Gurley was fatally shot in the stairwell of the Louis H. Pink Houses in East New York, Brooklyn, on the night of November 20, 2014. Gurley, 28, was with his girlfriend and using the stairs because the building elevator was out of service. Residents had reportedly complained about a malfunctioning light, and the eighth-floor stairwell where the officers stood was pitch-dark.

Two rookie NYPD officers, Peter Liang and Shaun Landau, were conducting a vertical patrol when Liang, with his firearm drawn, fired one shot as Gurley and his girlfriend stood on the seventh-floor landing below. The bullet ricocheted off concrete and struck Gurley in the chest; he collapsed after stumbling down two flights. Officers did not render immediate aid; Gurley’s girlfriend attempted CPR with instructions from a neighbor on a 911 call. The police commissioner later described Gurley as a total innocent and the shooting as an accident.

Liang was indicted on multiple charges on February 10, 2015, and a jury found him guilty of manslaughter and official misconduct on February 11, 2016. At sentencing on April 19, 2016, the manslaughter conviction was reduced to criminally negligent homicide and he received probation and community service. Gurley’s family later settled a wrongful death suit for over $4 million. Did anyone in the building witness events on that stairwell that night or know about prior complaints about the lighting?