Friends and relatives have gathered 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 20 November.
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 Mr 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 last night.
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.
Yesterday, thousands of demonstrators marched in major cities across the United States in a third consecutive night of protests against a spate of killings of unarmed black men by white police officers.
Protesters have condemned decisions by grand juries not to press charges against officers responsible for the 9 August shooting death of unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and the July 17 chokehold death of black father-of-six Eric Garner in New York.
In New York, protesters across the city shouted "I can't breathe" -- the final words gasped by Garner, a 43-year-old man who police wrestled to the ground in New York's Staten Island.
A coroner's report ruled Garner's death a "homicide" after police held him in a chokehold.
Demonstrators also staged "die-ins," by lying on the ground at Columbia University, Grand Central Station and after pouring into Macy's flagship store in Herald Square and the Apple store on Fifth Avenue.
Further protests took place in Washington DC, Miami, Chicago, Boston and New Orleans.
After rookie cop Peter Liang discharged the bullet that struck Gurley, he and partner Shaun Landau did not respond to radio contact for more than six-and-a-half minutes, the New York Daily News said.
The daily reported that the officer who fired the fatal bullet at Gurley texted his union representative as Gurley lay dying.
A neighbor instead phoned for the ambulance that rushed Gurley to the hospital, where he was declared dead on arrival.
New York Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said on 21 November that Mr Gurley was an innocent man who had been killed by an "accidental discharge."
