Five Years After Killing Eric Garner, NYPD Fires Officer Daniel Pantaleo

The Daily Beast – by Pilar Melendez

“Five years after Eric Garner’s dying plea “I can’t breathe” became the rallying cry against police brutality across the nation, the police officer who killed him has been fired.

New York City Police Commissioner James O’Neill announced on Monday that NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo has been fired. O’Neill terminated Pantaleo, 34, after it was determined he violated department policy by restraining Garner with a prohibited chokehold in 2014.

“It is clear that Daniel Pantaleo can no longer serve as a police officer,” O’Neill said.

An administrative judge previously recommended Pantaleo’s terminationfollowing an internal disciplinary trial. The judge, a deputy commissioner, found Pantaleo was “untruthful” during interviews with investigators and had “recklessly used force” during the fatal encounter.

Pantaleo had not faced official sanction for his actions until now, only being placed on desk duty. The Justice Department in July declined to charge Pantaleo with violating Garner’s civil rights. A Staten Island grand jury in 2014 declined to indict Pantaleo.

O’Neill’s decision is the final act in a long legal and political drama over the fate of Pantaleo, who has personified for many critics what they say is the NYPD’s overly aggressive policing, including killings of unarmed black men like Garner.

On July 17, 2014, Garner was confronted by NYPD officers on a Staten Island street corner after allegedly selling single “loose” cigarettes—prohibited by law.

Garner, 43, tried to pull away from surrounding officers before Pantaleo used a chokehold that has been banned by the NYPD since 1993, according to police. Video of the encounter taken by Garner’s friend shows Pantaleo holding Garner in a chokehold for several seconds, even after the two men fell to the ground.

Garner yelled “I can’t breathe” 11 times during the chokehold as officers pressed him into the sidewalk. But it was not until after the officers heard Garner’s pleas that they called for an ambulance. Paramedics awaited several minutes before giving Garner oxygen.

Garner was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at a local hospital, dying of what the city’s medical examiner called a “lethal cascade of events” begun by Pantaleo’s chokehold and ending in a cardiac arrest. The death was ruled a homicide.

His killing immediately galvanized the nascent Black Lives Matter movement, demanding police transparency and accountability  and prompted a reckoning in the city over how the police engage with residents.

Read the rest here: https://www.thedailybeast.com/daniel-pantaleo-cop-who-killed-eric-garner-fired-by-nypd-commissioner-james-oneill?ref=scroll