Officer Daniel Pantaleo, the NYPD officer who put Eric Garner in a chokehold which killed him, is scheduled for a disciplinary conference on Thursday that could result in the termination of his job.
Pantaleo has since been reassigned to desk duty after the 2014 death of Garner whose alleged offense was selling loose cigarettes outside of a bodega in Staten Island. He earns almost $120,000 a year since the incident occurred.
Garner’s mother, Gwen Carr, has fought endlessly to bring justice to the man who prematurely snatched her son’s life away. She took to the steps of City Hall on Tuesday to reaffirm her demand for criminal charges to be brought against Pantaleo. Unlike her previous efforts, this time should result in an indictment against the disgraced officer, according to a new interview with an ex-NYPD official.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio assured Carr this past summer that her son “did not die in vain.” The mayor has been scrutinized for not doing more to bring Pantaleo to justice. Carr called the mayor out on his lack of action calling it “political procrastination.”
De Blasio’s vowed, a day later, to take action.
According to a letter released by the NYPD on Monday, the Department of Justice finished its probe and it will launch its own investigation.
“The NYPD has come to the conclusion that given the extraordinary passage of time since the incident without a final decision on the US DOJ’s criminal investigation, any further delay in moving ahead with our own disciplinary proceedings can no longer be justified,” said Lawrence Byrne, the department’s deputy commissioner of legal matters, to Paige Fitzgerald, a deputy chief at the Department of Justice.
He continued, “My suspicion, based on my seven years as a federal criminal prosecutor, is that they have probably recommended an indictment.”
Although a grand jury declined to indict him over Garner’s death, it appears that steps are being taken to finally punish Pantaleo for his actions.
