Borough President Eric Adams met with African-American and Asian clergy members as well as business leaders Tuesday to discuss how to keep the peace when former Officer Peter Liang is sentenced for the death of Akai Gurley.

Liang was convicted of shooting and killing Gurley in a dark stairwell at the Pink Houses in East New York in 2014. The ex-officer says the shooting was an accident.

The meeting ran long as both sides expressed their pain. Members of the African-American community see what happened as a pattern of police injustices while many in the Asian community see Liang being used as a scapegoat.

Both groups vow to not let what happened divide the communities. Adams said as Americans it's every person's right to protest. He said he hopes whatever the sentence is that the protests are peaceful.

Liang will be sentenced on Thursday.