WASHINGTON
The Justice Department will conduct a civil rights investigation into the death of an unarmed black man who died after being placed in an illegal chokehold by a white New York police officer in July.
The announcement came shortly after a grand jury declined to file criminal charges against New York Police Department officer Daniel Pantaleo who used a banned department chokehold while attempting to arrest Eric Garner for allegedly selling untaxed cigarettes.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said an “independent, thorough, fair and expeditious investigation," would be conducted by the Justice Department.
“All lives must be valued, all lives,” he said as he described Garner's death as a tragedy.
The confrontation between Garner and Pantaleo was recorded on cellphone video. It shows Garner was unarmed and posed no apparent threat to the half-dozen officers who surrounded him. Garner is heard repeating, “I can’t breathe,” almost a dozen times after the chokehold was applied.
“We must seek to heal the breakdown in trust that we have seen,” Holder added.
The grand jury’s decision ignited protests across the city Wednesday afternoon and into the night. A week before the New York decision, another grand jury also declined to indict a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, for fatally shooting an unarmed black teen. In that case, 18-year-old Michael Brown was killed by Darren Wilson less than a month after Garner’s death. Since that decision, nationwide protests have raged across the nations.
"These incidents have tested the sense of trust that must exist between law enforcement and the communities they are charged to serve and protect,” Holder said.
“This is not a New York issue or a Ferguson issue alone. Those who have protested peacefully across our great nation following the grand jury’s decision in Ferguson have made that clear.”
The investigation will be led by a team that includes Eastern District U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch, who has been nominated to succeed Holder as attorney general.
Holder said Lynch's office, the department's civil rights division and the FBI closely monitored the New York case after Garner's death and will conduct "a complete review of material gathered during the local investigation."
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