New York Police Department fires officer in Eric Garner case

The New York Police Department has fired the officer caught on video with his arm around the neck of 43-year-old Eric Garner just before he died in 2014, ending a five-year legal saga over the incident that fueled a movement to change how police treat minorities.

NYPD Commissioner James O'Neill announced the decision Monday, weeks after a departmental disciplinary judge recommended the officer, Daniel Pantaleo, be terminated. Pantaleo was suspended from duty following that recommendation.

"It was an extremely difficult decision," O'Neill said, acknowledging that the move would likely anger rank-and-file officers. "I've been a cop for a long time. If I was still a cop, I'd probably be mad at me."

On the video recording of Garner's death, he is seen being grabbed by officers and pulled down to the sidewalk after he insisted they should not arrest him for allegedly selling loose cigarettes. On the video, he can be heard saying "I can't breathe," and his dying words became a rallying cry for protests demanding changes in police treatment of minorities.

The case sparked local and federal civil rights investigations, both of which ended with no charges filed against Pantaleo or the other officers involved.

Garner's family, frustrated by the lack of criminal charges, demanded the city fire Pantaleo, and Mayor Bill de Blasio had publicly suggested officials would take action against him.

"This has been a long battle, five years too long," Emerald Garner, one of Eric Garner's daughters, said earlier this month. "And finally somebody has said that there's some information that this cop did something wrong."

Police union officials and Pantaleo's lawyer insisted firing him would be an injustice, because he had not violated police procedures.

"He acted the way he was taught to act," said Stuart London, the lawyer. "If you call this reckless assault then almost any arrest would be reckless assault."

Patrick J. Lynch, head of the Police Benevolent Association, the union that represents New York City officers, called Garner's death "a tragedy" for Garner and the officers involved, and he attacked the mayor for what he called a political decision.