[4고급] WATCH: NYPD fires officer for 2014 death of Eric Garner  

 

NEW YORK (AP) —

After five years of  investigations and protests,

New York City’s police commissioner

on  Monday

fired

an officer

involved in the 2014 chokehold death

of an unarmed black man

whose dying cries of “I can’t breathe”

fueled

a national debate

over race and police use of force.

 

 

NYPD is holding

a news conference

at 12:30p.m. EDT.

Watch live

in the video player above.

 

Police Commissioner James O’Neill’s

announced

at a midday news  conference

that he had fired

Officer Daniel Pantaleo,

who is white, 

based on a recent recommendation

of a department disciplinary judge.

 

He  said

it was clear

that Pantaleo “can no longer effectively serve

as a  New York City police officer.”

 

“None of us

can take back

our decisions,”

 

O’Neill said,

“especially

when they lead

to the death of another human being.”

 

O’Neill has been deliberating

on whether to accept a disciplinary judge’s recommendation

to fire Officer Daniel Pantaleo

for using a banned chokehold

on Eric Garner.

 

The recordings

led

to years of protests and calls

by black activists and liberal politicians

for Pantaleo to lose his job.

 

City officials

had long insisted,

though,

they couldn’t take action

until criminal investigations were complete.

 

A state grand jury

declined

to indict Pantaleo

in 2014.

 

Federal  authorities, however,

kept

a civil rights investigation open

for five  years

before announcing

last month

they wouldn’t bring charges.

 

Pantaleo’s lawyer

has insisted

the officer used

a reasonable amount of force

and didn’t mean

to hurt Garner.

 

New York City’s mayor

has declined to say

whether he believes

Garner  should lose his job

but has been promising “justice”

to the slain man’s  family.

 

Garner’s death

came

at a time of a growing public outcry

over police killings of unarmed black men

that sparked

the national Black Lives  Matter movement.

 

Just weeks later,

protests erupted

in Ferguson, Missouri,

over the fatal shooting

of unarmed teenager Michael Brown.

 

And later in 2014,

a  man angry about the Garner and Brown

cases

shot two New York City police officers to death

in their cruiser in retribution.

 

At a recent administrative trial at New York Police Department  headquarters, Pantaleo’s lawyers argued he used an approved “seat belt”  technique to subdue Garner, who refused to be handcuffed after officers  accused him of selling untaxed cigarettes.

 

In a bystander’s video, it appeared that Pantaleo initially tried to  use two approved restraint tactics on Garner, who was much larger at  6-foot-2 (188 centimeters) and about 400 pounds (180 kilograms), but  ended up wrapping his arm around Garner’s neck for about seven seconds  as they struggled against a glass storefront window and fell to the  sidewalk.

 

The footage showed Garner, who was 43 at the time, crying out, “I  can’t breathe,” at least 11 times before he fell unconscious. The  medical examiner’s office said a chokehold contributed to Garner’s  death.

 

Questions about the handling of the case have dogged Democratic Mayor  Bill de Blasio during his long-shot run for president, with some  protesters at the recent debate in Detroit chanting, “Fire Pantaleo.”