Officer Daniel Pantaleo in Eric Garner’s death should be fired, an administrative judge recommends – NBC News

A New York administrative judge recommended that Daniel Pantaleo, the New York City police officer at the center of Eric Garner’s July 2014 death case, should be fired from the department, sources said Friday.

Now it is up to the city’s police commissioner whether Pantaleo will keep his job.

The recommendation follows a departmental trial earlier this year.

The officer, who was seen in cellphone footage from the July 2014 incident with his arm around Garner’s neck as the unarmed black man repeatedly said “I can’t breathe,” has been on administrative duty since the death.

The judge’s recommendation comes days after Mayor Bill de Blasio was heckled on national television during a Democratic presidential debate with calls to “Fire Pantaleo.”

It also comes weeks after the U.S. Justice Department said it would not bring federal civil rights or criminal charges against Pantaleo following a five-year investigation.

Garner, 43, who was asthmatic, was getting arrested on Staten Island on July 17, 2014, for allegedly selling loose cigarettes. A video a bystander took showed Pantaleo putting Garner in an apparent chokehold, which is prohibited by NYPD policies.

A father of six, Garner said he could not breathe 11 times during his arrest before going into cardiac arrest. He was pronounced dead at the hospital.

His death sparked national protests and the phrase “I can’t breathe” became a rallying cry for police reform.

In August 2014, a medical examiner ruled Garner’s death a homicide, saying the chokehold was the cause. A grand jury on Staten Island declined to indict Pantaleo in Garner’s death.

Pantaleo has said that he performed a legal move called the “seatbelt” on Garner.