Former NYPD Officer Peter Liang, who was convicted of manslaughter in the 2014 fatal shooting of Akai Gurley in a darkened housing-project stairwell, met Thursday morning with the victim’s domestic partner and offered her an apology.
Kimberly Ballinger, the mother of Gurley’s child, met with Liang in the office of Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson, who a day earlier announced that he is recommending no prison time for the ex-cop.
Liang — who was criticized publicly for not apologizing when he testified on his own behalf at trial in February — sat across from Ballinger in a DA’s Office conference room at about 10:45 a.m., said his lawyer, Paul Shechtman.
“Peter began it, and said that he had wanted to tell her how sorry he was that she lost a loved one,” Shechtman told The Post.
“He said this past year had been hard for him, but he couldn’t even imagine how painful it must have been for her and her child.”
Ballinger, the mother of Gurley’s 3-year-old daughter, acknowledged the apology but “had no reaction,” said her attorney, Scott Rynecki.
“She wanted to hear what he had to say, and wanted him to hear what she had to say,” Rynecki said. “She wanted him to know how his actions had affected her life, and her daughter Akaila’s life.
“She wanted him to hear her say that Akaila was now fatherless, and that she was now a single parent,” Rynecki continued, adding that Liang “sat and listened.”
It was not clear who arranged the meeting — although the no-jail recommendation comes after heavy political pressure and protests from Asian-American groups who did not want to see Liang, a Chinese-American, punished.
Asian-community activists told The Post last month that they would mobilize against Thompson in his re-election bid next year.
“There was an expression of interest on both sides, and the district attorney helped facilitate the meeting,” said Shechtman, who declined to elaborate.
The meeting ended with a handshake, and the two left separately without making plans to meet again before Liang’s April 14 sentencing.
A little more than an hour later, the mood was decidedly less peaceful as Assemblyman Charles Barron told protesters that “violence is inevitable” if Liang gets the no-jail sentence recommended by the DA.
“We will not forget this,” Barron bellowed to protesters gathered outside Thompson’s Downtown Brooklyn office. “Some of our people are saying, ‘An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a life for a life.’
“Even Martin Luther King — the prince of peace — said that riots are the voices of the unheard,” said Barron, an ex-Black Panther activist.
“Am I saying we should be violent? I’m saying the system will decide. We will shut this city down, Ken Thompson,” Barron warned.
Relatives of Gurley — who was killed when Liang mistakenly fired his gun during a vertical patrol in East New York — organized the demonstration over Thompson’s recommendation to trial Judge Danny Chun that Liang receive 500 hours of community service, six months of home confinement and five years of probation.