Well, someone felt sorry for him.
A sympathetic juror nudged a box of tissues toward the rookie cop who accidentally shot an unarmed man in a housing-project stairwell as he testified on Monday, prompting a court officer to pass the tissues to the silently crying cop.
NYPD Officer Peter Liang openly wept on the witness stand as he recalled finding innocent victim Akai Gurley bleeding on a stairwell landing in November 2014.
At one point, Liang twisted his body away from the audience as he continued to cry and was granted a roughly minute-long break to compose himself.
That’s when the juror pushed the box of tissues toward him.
“When I got there, I bent over and looked at him,” Liang said in Brooklyn Supreme Court. “He looked like he was seriously injured. His eyes were rolled back. He was just laying there, very still.”
During his testimony, Liang said he accidentally fired his service weapon after hearing a “quick sound” that startled him.
“The gun just went off after I tensed up,” Liang said.
Liang’s lack of an apology during his testimony in his own defense drew criticism from Gurley’s mother and legal experts.
Meanwhile, closing arguments in Liang’s manslaughter trial began Tuesday.