NYPD fires Peter Liang’s partner
By
Larry Celona and
Shawn Cohen
February 12, 2016 | 3:28pm
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Shaun Landau Photo: Gregory P. Mango
The partner of convicted killer cop Peter Liang was fired Friday — and the NYPD has launched an investigation into his witness-stand claim that the Police Academy lets recruits cheat on the CPR tests, sources told The Post.
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Peter Liang reacts after he was found guilty of manslaughter on Feb. 11.Photo: Gregory P. Mango
Probationary Officer Shaun Landau had been on modified duty since November 2014, when Liang shot unarmed Akai Gurley, 28, as the two cops patrolled a dark stairwell at the Louis Pink Houses in East New York, Brooklyn.
Since Landau was a probationary officer — with less than two years on the job — the NYPD does not have to state a reason for the firing beyond “unsatisfactory probation,” a law-enforcement source said.
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The Internal Affairs Bureau investigation stems from Landau’s and another cop’s trial testimony in which jurors were told that the Police Academy lets recruits cheat on their CPR-certification tests.
Some 30 of Liang’s classmates are being questioned on their CPR training and on who taught them, a law-enforcement source said.
Each was being asked to identify their teacher by photo, the source added.
Landau and the other cop, Liang’s 2013 academy classmate Officer John Funk, told jurors that recruits were given the questions and answers in advance of a written test, and that they received little or no time practicing CPR on a mannequin.
Liang’s lawyer, Robert E. Brown, used the testimony in an attempt to explain why the two partners failed to resuscitate Gurley. They had felt unqualified to do so, the lawyer had told jurors.
“How much time [during training] did you spend on the mannequin?” Brown asked Landau during cross-examination last week.
“Less than two minutes?”
Landau answered, “Yes.”
Funk told jurors that CPR training involved 300 recruits crowding into an auditorium with just eight mannequins. Everyone passed.
Testimony also showed that neither partner called a supervisor for at least four minutes after Liang’s gun discharged.
Additional reporting by Laura Italiano