Justice Department announces federal civil rights investigation into death of unarmed black man who was placed in chokehold

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

The US attorney general, Eric Holder, has announced a federal investigation into “potential civil rights violations” around the death of Eric Garner after a grand jury decided not to indict Daniel Pantaleo, the New York police officer who placed the unarmed black man in a chokehold.

Thousands of demonstrators disrupted New York City traffic into the early hours of Thursday after the grand jury verdict. Mostly peaceful protests had sprung up on Wednesday evening at locations throughout Manhattan, including Grand Central Terminal, Times Square and near Rockefeller Center, after the panel returned no indictment.

The New York protests were civil, with about 30 arrests by mid-evening. Police were showing restraint and allowing demonstrators to block traffic briefly before coaxing them to move on.

Marchers snaked through the streets for hours, chanting and bumping up against throngs of tourists in New York for the holiday season. Disparate clusters of protesters crossed through Times Square a number of times, and one group brought traffic to a standstill on the West Side Highway along the Hudson River.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest People march though traffic on 10th Avenue in New York. Photograph: Michael Nagle/EPA

Later, after marching from Central Park to lower Manhattan, some protesters crossed a bridge into the borough of Brooklyn.

There were also small protests in Washington, DC, and elsewhere in the US.

In a televised address, Holder said the Department of Justice would investigate whether Garner suffered any civil rights violations when he was placed in a chokehold by the New York police department officer Daniel Pantaleo.



A separate DoJ investigation is under way into Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson’s fatal shooting of another unarmed black man, Michael Brown.

Holder promised the investigation into Garner’s death, which was caught on video, would be “independent, thorough, fair and expeditious” and pleaded with demonstrators to remain peaceful.

The attorney general acknowledged the deaths of Garner, 43, and Brown, 18, had tapped into wider concerns about policing. “This is not a New York issue, nor a Ferguson issue alone,” he said.

“We’ve all seen the video of Mr Garner’s arrest. His death of course was a tragedy. All lives must be valued – all lives. Mr Garner’s death is one of several recent incidents across our great country that have tested the sense of trust that must exist between law enforcement and the communities they are charged to serve and to protect.”

Holder said the Garner case has been “closely monitored” in recent months by the DoJ’s civil rights division, the US attorney’s office for the eastern district of New York, and the FBI. All three had allowed the local investigation led by the Staten Island district attorney’s office to proceed first, he added.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Eric Holder speaks at a press conference

“Now that the local investigation has concluded I am here to announce that the justice department will proceed with a federal civil rights investigation into Mr Garner’s death,” he said.

Holder acknowledged that “substantial numbers of people” would want to protest against the decisionbut said the “ most successful movements are those that adhere to the principles of non-violence. I urge all inclined to demonstrate tonight, and in the days ahead, to remain peaceful in their demonstrations and not to engage in activities that deflect our attention from the very serious matters that our nation must confront.”

Police stopped Garner, a father of six, under suspicion of peddling untaxed “loose” cigarettes in July before his arrest. In footage of the moments leading up to the chokehold, Garner is heard telling police: “Every time you see me, you wanna harass me, you wanna stop me … I’m minding my business, officer.”

Garner repeatedly complained that he could not breathe when Pantaleo had him in a chokehold.

An autopsy showed Garner died as a result of the chokehold, compressions to the chest, and prone positioning during his restraint by police. The New York grand jury could have considered multiple charges, from murder to a lesser offense such as reckless endangerment, but the Staten Island district attorney, Daniel Donovan, said jurors found “no reasonable cause” to bring charges.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Demonstrators walk together in New York. Photograph: Yana Paskova/Getty Images

In a statement released on Wednesday night, Pantaleo expressed his condolences to Garner’s family. “I became a police officer to help people and to protect those who can’t protect themselves. It is never my intention to harm anyone and I feel very bad about the death of Mr Garner,” he said.

Pantaleo’s lawyer, Stuart London, said that he used a move on Garner that was taught by the police department, not a chokehold.

London told the New York Times that in his testimony, Pantaleo “wanted to get across to the grand jury that it was never his intention to injure or harm anyone”.

“He was really just describing how he was attempting to arrest someone,” he added.

The decision not to indict Wilson over Brown’s death sparked a night of rioting in the St Louis suburb of Ferguson last month and a wave of solidarity protests across the country.



Two separate investigations have been launched in relation to the Ferguson case. One is a federal investigation into whether Brown’s civil rights were violated when he was shot dead by Wilson on 6 August.

A second, broader, DoJ inquiry in Ferguson is examining whether the police force is responsible for discriminatory policing and other civil rights violations.

The New York mayor, Bill De Blasio, acknowledged the widespread discontent the Garner decision would cause. He too called on protesters to remain peaceful, saying he had just met the victim’s father, Ben, and that “Eric would not have wanted violence”.

Earlier on Wednesday, Barack Obama, who has been criticised over his response to unrest in Ferguson, suggested the Garner case had reaffirmed his determination to ensure all Americans were treated equally in the criminal justice system.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Demonstrators block the entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel. Photograph: Andrew Burton/Getty Images

“When anybody in this country is not being treated equally under the law, that’s a problem,” the president said during a conference in Washington, DC. “And it is my job as president to help solve it.”

Marcia Fudge, the Ohio Democrat who chairs the congressional black caucus, warned of the message being sent by the decisions not to indict Wilson or Pantaleo.

“In the span of two weeks, this nation seems to have heard one message loud and clear: there will be no accountability for taking black lives,” she said. “As an American, it is growing increasingly difficult to believe that there is justice for all.”

Keiha Souley, 35, was driving his taxi cab on Broadway when protesters blocked traffic. As he chanted along with demonstrators, he said he did not mind the delay.

“You’ve got to stand up sometime,” he said.

In one of several “die-ins”, demonstrators lay in silence on a pavement about a block from where the Christmas tree lighting ceremony was under way at Rockefeller Center. Police blockaded the street, preventing marchers from interrupting the nationally televised event.

About 1,000 people packed into the ornate main hall of Grand Central Terminal for a noisy but peaceful protest.

On Staten Island, near the site where Garner was apprehended, Daniel Skelton, a black 40-year-old banker, spoke loudly as he voiced his outrage: “A black man’s life just don’t matter in this country”.

Garner’s stepfather, Benjamin Carr, also at the scene, consoled another angry man in a car. “We don’t want no Fergusons here,” Carr said. “All we want is peace.”