New York police to announce fate of officer in Eric Garner chokehold death -lawyer
NEW YORK, Aug 19 (Reuters) - New York police will reveal on Monday the fate of the white police officer who used a deadly chokehold while arresting Eric Garner in 2014, the officer's lawyer said, in a case that fueled the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement.
The officer, Daniel Pantaleo, was suspended earlier this month after a departmental judge ruled that he should be fired for his role in the incident, which including Garner's repeated cries of "I can't breathe" in a widely viewed bystander video.
Police Commissioner James O'Neill called a news conference for 12:30 p.m. ET (1630 GMT) without revealing the topic, but attorney Stuart London, who represents Pantaleo, said the news conference was called to announce a decision about whether O'Neill will order any disciplinary action.
"I'll be watching along with everyone else," London said, explaining he was unaware what decision had been taken.
Pantaleo had previously been on desk duty since he was seen in widely viewed cellphone videos using a banned chokehold on Garner on a Staten Island sidewalk during an attempted arrest.
Police believed Garner was selling loose, untaxed cigarettes.
Garner's repeated dying cries of "I can't breathe," widely viewed on social media, became a rallying cry for the Black Lives Matter movement, which protests what its leaders call the disparate use of excessive force against black people across the United States.
A Staten Island grand jury and the U.S. Department of Justice both declined to prosecute in one of a series of cases in which a law enforcement officer faced no criminal liability for killing an unarmed black man. (Reporting by Daniel Trotta and Jonathan Allen; Editing by Scott Malone and Steve Orlofsky)
