No Indictment in Murder of Eric Garner
Garner, a 43-year-old father of six, was killed July 17 when Pantaleo subdued him on a Tompkinsville street with a banned chokehold.
Police said they approached Garner because he was selling
unlicensed cigarettes - better known as loosies - and that he resisted arrest.
They noted that Garner’s rap sheet listed 31 arrests,
beginning when he was 16.
But Garner’s death sparked national outrage after The
Daily News obtained a sickening cell phone video of his deadly encounter with
police.
Pantaleo, who had been accused of false arrest and
violating police procedures in two previous lawsuits, was yanked off the
street.
Eric Garner died while being arrested by police in Staten
Island.
The Staten Island district attorney and the Civilian
Complaint Review Board launched probes. And the medical examiner’s office ruled
Garner’s death a homicide.
But after several months of reviewing the evidence, a
majority on the panel, which sources said consisted of 15 white and 8 black or
Hispanic jurors, concluded there was not enough there to charge Pantaleo with a
crime.
Pantaleo, 29, an eight-year veteran of the force, could
still be hit with departmental charges that could end his career as a New York
City police officer.
