Friends and relatives gathered Saturday for the New York funeral service of an unarmed black man shot dead by police, after a wave of national protests against similar killings. Akai Gurley, 28, a father of a young daughter, was shot dead when a police officer opened fire in a dimly lit staircase at a Brooklyn apartment building as he walked with his girlfriend late on November 20.
Mourners filed past Gurley's open casket to pay their respects at the Brown Memorial Baptist Church, before the lid was closed and a huge spray of red and white flowers placed on top of the gray coffin. New York's police commissioner has said Gurley was a totally innocent victim and the family has demanded justice.
"How do I explain to my daughter that her dad is not coming back?" his girlfriend Melissa Butler said at his wake on Friday evening. The Brooklyn district attorney has said that a grand jury would consider charges in one of the cases that has again brought to the fore the distrust felt by many African Americans towards the police. Ken Thompson said he would present all the evidence for a grand jury to decide whether charges should be brought. "I pledge to conduct a full and fair investigation and to give the grand jury all of the information necessary to do its job," he said. Neither the timetable nor the deadline for the grand jury to reach a decision has been announced.