Jurors in the trial of a rookie police officer charged with manslaughter in the shooting death of a Brooklyn man seem to be zeroing in on a crucial issue - did the officer deliberately fire his gun, or was it an accident? NY1's Dean Meminger filed the following report.

Jurors in Officer Peter Liang's trial wanted to know how difficult is it to fire his gun, the 9mm that killed Akai Gurley.

Each juror tested the trigger of the unloaded weapon, apparently to see if it could fire accidentally, as the defense claims. The sound echoed across the courtroom.

Jurors also asked to hear Liang's explanation again of what happened when he entered a dark stairwell of the Pink Houses with a flashlight in one hand and his gun in the other. The court reporter read back his testimony.

"So I open the door, push it on my right shoulder and as soon as I got in, I heard something on my left side. Quick sound. And it just startled me. And the gun just went off," the court reporter read.

Jurors also requested a readback of Liang's claim that he handled the gun properly and didn't have his finger on the trigger when he entered that staircase and the gun fired.

The testimony of his partner Shaun Landau on what happened was repeated, too.

"He pushed the door in with his right shoulder. Question: Show us. Answer: Like this. Question: Then what happened? Answer: Then I just hear a shot," the court reporter read.

Gurley's girlfriend Melissa Butler's testimony was requested by jurors, in which she said as they enter the dark staircase of the seventh floor, the door on the eighth floor opened, slammed against the wall and a shot was fired."

In closing arguments, the prosecuton claimed Liang deliberately fired his gun when he heard a noise. The defense Wednesday called the comment "unfairly prejudicial," arguing there was no evidence Liang intended to kill Gurley.

The judge rejected the mistrial request, saying prosecutors were only trying to prove Liang intentionally pulled the trigger and that doing so was reckless, the standard for manslaughter.

If convicted of that top charge, Liang could face up to 15 years behind bars.