It was never supposed to be a chokehold, the officer testified. It was a wrestling move.

After two months of considering evidence in the fatal choking of Eric Garner on July 17, a grand jury on Staten Island was finally hearing from Daniel Pantaleo, the officer accused in the death.

Officer Pantaleo, 29, led the grand jury through the confrontation, narrating three different videos of the arrest that were taken by bystanders. His task would not be easy.

One video, widely seen on the Internet, seemed to show Officer Pantaleo using a chokehold — a move banned by the Police Department, but not explicitly against state law — to bring Mr. Garner down. The medical examiner’s office determined that the chokehold, as well as compression to the chest, caused Mr. Garner’s death, and ruled it a homicide.