10,000 Rally in New York In Support of Convicted NYPD Officer Peter Liang

Protesters at a rally in the Brooklyn borough of New York Saturday in support of a former NYPD police officer Peter Liang, who was convicted of manslaughter for the 2014 shooting death of Akai Gurley, in a housing project stairwell, on Feb. 20, 2016. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)

NEW YORK—About 10,000 supporters of a former police officer convicted of fatally shooting an unarmed man in a darkened stairwell rallied in New York in one of several demonstrations held across the country Saturday to protest his conviction.

Peter Liang, who has said the shooting was an accident, was convicted of manslaughter this month in the death of Akai Gurley, who was fatally shot in 2014 inside a New York City public housing building.

Many of Liang’s supporters say he is being scapegoated because of anger over other police shootings in New York and across the country and that he has been treated unfairly because he is Asian-American.

The protest in Brooklyn was one of more than 30 held around the U.S., organizers said. About 2,000 people marched in Philadelphia, and hundreds gathered at smaller rallies from Phoenix to Ann Arbor, Michigan. The events were organized by the “Coalition of Justice for Liang,” a national group formed to support the officer.

New York City police officer Peter Liang is escorted out of court after he was charged with manslaughter, official misconduct and other offenses in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, on Feb. 11, 2015. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)