WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department is investigating the case of an unarmed black man who died after New York City police put him in a chokehold, a Justice Department official said on Wednesday after a grand jury decided not to indict the officer involved.

Eric Garner died after police applied the chokehold while trying to arrest him for illegally selling cigarettes in the New York borough of Staten Island in July.

(Reporting by Aruna Viswanatha; Editing by Eric Walsh)