A Staten Island grand jury decided on Wednesday not to indict an NYPD officer for a case in which he placed the offender in a chokehold just before the man died.
The New York Times reported that the jury has decided not to bring charges against a white police officer Daniel Pantaleo, who got into a confrontation while trying to arrest Eric Garner.
The New York Post noted that Garner, a black man, died of a heart attack shortly after Pantaleo put him in a chokehold as he attempted to arrest him for peddling loose cigarettes.
“I became a police officer to help people and to protect those who can’t protect themselves,” Pantaleo said. “It is never my intention to harm anyone and I feel very bad about the death of Mr. Garner. My family and I include him and his family in our prayers and I hope that they will accept my personal condolences for their loss.”
The decision comes on the heels of another grand jury choosing not to indict a white police officer in the shooting death of a black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri. That decision sparked several protests throughout the country.
A lawyer for Garner’s family said that he was “astonished” by the most recent decision.