Rookie NYPD cop 'shot unarmed black man then did nothing as he lay dying - while victim's girlfriend frantically tried to revive him' manslaughter trial is told

A New York policeman shot an unarmed black man – then stood by while the dying man's girlfriend frantically tried to save him.

Akai Gurley, the father of a young daughter, died after being hit by a ricochet in the dimly lit stairwell Brooklyn housing project in November 2014.

Peter Liang, a 28-year-old rookie NYPD officer, faces up to 15 years if convicted of charges ranging from second degree manslaughter to official misconduct.

Gurley's death, in a Brooklyn project, was one of a number of killings that sparked anti-police protests around the country and a national round of soul searching about policing methods.

Liang does not deny the killing but his defense will say that it was not a crime, and that he drew his gun because he 'was on his way to the most dangerous place of a dangerous place'.

Melissa Lopez said she was at home with her husband and two children in her fourth-floor apartment when she heard a shot ring out in the stairwell.

In court: Rookie NYPD officer Peter Liang (pictured last February) faces up to 15 years if convicted of second degree manslaughter for the death of 28-year-old Akai Gurley

Justice: Unarmed father-of-one, Akai Gurley, was shot dead by NYPD Officer Peter Liang in November 2014. Liang appeared in court Monday as 911 calls played out during first day of evidence

Desperate: Melissa Butler, Gurley's girlfriend, banged on a neighbor's door for help with blood on her hands as she tried to save him

Seconds later a woman, with blood on her hands, hammered at her door asking for help. That was Gurley's girlfried, Melissa Butler.

Lopez's 911 call was played to a packed Brooklyn courtroom during the first day of evidence, giving a sense of the desperate effort to save Gurley's life as he laid bleeding on the fifth floor of the Louis Pink Houses in East New York, one of areas of the city most blighted with crime,

'Somebody got shot in the stairwell,' she tells the operator after giving her address.

'You are saying someone was shot on the fifth floor,' asks the operator. 'How long ago was someone shot?'

'Just now, just now,' she replies.

She is assured that help is on the way before being transferred to an emergency medicine specialist, who tells her to find towels and apply them to the wound.

'Just tell them they gotta apply direct pressure to the wound site,' says the EMS. 'Don't move him.'

She is given advice on CPR which she then can be heard shouting up the stairs to Butler.

'Pinch his nose and put your mouth over his,' she shouts.

'Just keep trying to breathe for him,' says the medic down the line.

Gurley's condition worsens and Lopez says he is no longer breathing.

'See if she can do compressions,' says the medic. See if she can give two breaths and then put her hands on his chest and press down.'

Finally, amid the confusion, realization dawns. 'A cop shot him,' says Lopez.

As the landing fills with police officers, the frustration spills into her voice.

'I just called because my neighbor knocked on my door,' she says on the recording, her voice fading in exhaustion and resignation. 

'There's like a million cops but no ambulance. I don't know what is going on. I'm telling her to do the CPR and she's doing it. I don't know.'

Gurley was pronounced dead later that night at Brookdale Hospital.

In court Monday she was asked by Marc Fliedner, for the prosecution, what Officer Liang was doing while she and Butler were rushing around delivering first aid.

'He was doing nothing the whole time,' she said.

The prosecution alleges that Liang recklessly fired his weapon and then did nothing to help when he realized Gurley had been badly wounded.

In his opening statement Monday, Fliedner said Liang and his partner were making their way through the floors of the Louis Pink Houses, on a landing where the lights were not working.

Gurley was in the stairwell on a floor below when LIang, with a torch in one hand, pushed his way through the doors on to the stairs.

'He recklessly pulled out his gun fired for no reason and pumped out a bullet that hit the wall near where Akai Gurley was standing and then ripped through his heart,' he said.

Fliedner said Liang failed to offer first aid when he finally descended the stairs to find Gurley slumped on the floor with his girlfriend giving CPR, continued Fliedner.

Crime hotspot: Liang's defense claims he drew his gun because he 'was on his way to the most dangerous place of a dangerous place' in Brooklyn projects

Family: Akai Gurley leaves behind young daughter Akaila, pictured in 2014 with her mother Kimberly Ballinger

Scene: A stairwell at a building in the public housing project in Brooklyn known as the 'Pink Houses'. This is where Akai Gurley was hit by a ricochet and later died

'This man had just shot an innocent man and he never even knelt to try to fix what he had done, to look into his dying eyes, even to touch him,' he added.

'Instead what he did was walk around Akai Gurley's body.'

He said the evidence would show that Liang was using a 9mm handgun with a modified police trigger.

'This trigger makes police guns more difficult to fire than a gun straight from the gun maker,' he said.

The defense insists Liang accidentally discharged his weapon and then went into shock as he realized the enormity of what had happened.

Rae Koshetz told the jury that the American policing system was not on trial at New York State Court in Brooklyn.

'This is not a referendum on policing in the US,' she said. 'Nor is this case about retribution.'

She added that the officer was patrolling with his weapon drawn but pointed down in a safe direction. 

He and his partner, Shaun Landau, graduated from police college only a year earlier and were on overtime following a murder nearby.

'He has his gun out because he is on his way to the roof, the most dangerous place in a dangerous place, and there's no rule saying an officer cannot have his gun out,' she said.

She said he initially had no idea that anyone had been hit when it suddenly fired. When he discovered Gurley had been injured he made several attempts to notify his superiors by radio but they failed to transmit the message.

And rather than worrying about his job, he slumped against a wall in a state of shock.

'He is not crying and moaning about his job,' she said. Let anyone in the world who has had the experience of finding out that he has just killed anybody, that he has just fired a fatal shot, be at the top of their game.'

It is extremely unusual for police officers to face trial for in-the-line-of-duty killings.

A survey by The Washington Post and Bowling Green State University found that 54 were charged in the past decade despite thousands of shootings.

However, the mood has changed in the past two years with a series of high-profile killings of unarmed black men, including Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, Freddy Gray in Baltimore and Eric Garner, who died after being subjected to a choke hold on Staten Island.

In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, New York police declared Gurley's death to be a 'tragedy' and Commissioner Bill Bratton described Gurley as a 'total innocent'.

Kerbie Joseph, a Gurley family representative, said the details of the 911 call and the evidence of Mrs Lopez were damning. 

'If it wasn't for the witness and Akai's friend there wouldn't have been any attention to Akai Gurley, because the police did nothing,' she said outside the courtroom. 

The case is expected to last four weeks.