Police were searching Wednesday for a grinning joker who waved what looked like a small but possibly real gun during a live news telecast outside the Brooklyn trial of NYPD stairwell-shooting cop Peter Liang.
WNBC/Channel 4 reporter Michael George was taping his noon live shot across the street from the courthouse — where the first full day of deliberations ended without a verdict — when the man walked past, smiling at the camera and waving the silver object in the air.
Inside court, where Liang, 27, awaits his fate in the November 2014 accidental shooting of unarmed bystander Akai Gurley, 28, jurors reviewed evidence during their first full day of deliberations.
All 12 jurors held Liang’s service weapon as part of their deliberations, feeling for themselves the force it takes to pull the trigger.
Liang testified that the gun “just went off” as he entered the stairwell while on patrol at the Louis H. Pink Houses in East New York.
But prosecutors contended in closing arguments that Liang pulled the trigger intentionally after he was startled by a sudden noise.