When New York City Police Lieutenant Vitaliy Zelikov arrived at the Louis H Pink Houses in East New York, Brooklyn, on Nov 20, 2014, other police units had already arrived in response to a radio call of a shooting.

"I saw Akai Gurley lying with blood on him," Zelikov said. "I instructed officers to conduct CPR and other measures. I took officer Liang out of the stairway. He was standing and just staring off into space I had to sit him down."

The third day of testimony in the manslaughter trial of Chinese-American NYPD officer Peter Liang in the fatal shooting of an unarmed Akai Gurley, 28, centered on first-hand accounts from the scene, ballistics reports and details of police training.

Zelikov, an 11-year veteran of the NYPD, said when he responded to the scene Liang was visibly "shaken" and "hyperventilating".

Zelikov said Liang told him he shot Gurley by accident.

Zelikov told the court that the 75th precinct in Brooklyn was one of the city's most active precincts for homicides and shooting cases and Pink Houses was one of the top locations for calls.

Defense attorney Robert Brown told the court that the NYPD assigns the most inexperienced officers to the highest crime areas of the city.

Liang had been on the force 18 months before the incident.

Liang, who pleaded not guilty to the charge of second-degree manslaughter in February 2015, sat flanked by his attorneys and listened intently to the testimony on Thursday at State Supreme Court in Brooklyn. More than 100 people were sitting in on the trial.

Liang admitted to the shooting immediately, Zelikov told the court, adding that there was no attempt to cover it up.

Police protocol dictates that after an officer fires a weapon in the line of duty, that firearm undergoes analysis, Zelikov explained.

Detective Mark Acevedo, a firearms expert, testified that NYPD 9-mm handguns are equipped with "NY2" triggers that require 11 pounds of pressure to fire, nearly double the force needed to discharge a non-service weapon.

Acevedo said he tested Liang's gun and bullets and found both "the firearm and the ammunition were operable".

The defense had suggested that Liang's gun was defective, CBS News reported.

Liang's trial began Monday with opening statements from both sides.

Prosecutor Marc J. Fliedner said that Liang acted recklessly in discharging his firearm in a darkened stairwell, and in failing to help Gurley.

After the shooting, neither Liang nor his partner Shaun Landau did anything to help Gurley, not even administering CPR or any other emergency aid, Fliedner told the jury.

Rae Koshetz, a defense attorney for Liang, said in her opening argument that her client committed no crime, adding that the gun went off accidentally.

Both sides agree that while Liang was on patrol on Nov 20, 2014, at Pink Houses in East New York, he discharged his gun and a bullet, said to have ricocheted off the wall of the stairwell, killed Gurley.

Court documents presented by the prosecution said that Liang and Landau argued for two minutes over who would report the shooting and waited nearly 20 minutes before calling in an "accidental fire".

During Landau's grand jury testimony, he said he recalled Liang repeatedly telling him the discharge of the weapon was "by accident".

On Tuesday, two other police officers testified in court about their response to the scene.

The trial will resume on Feb 1. Liang faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted.

jackfreifelder@chinadailyusa.com

(China Daily USA 01/29/2016 page2)