Council Speaker Corey Johnson said on Wednesday that the NYPD officer who killed Eric Garner while trying to detain him on a Staten Island street should have been fired “years ago.”
Johnson tweeted the statement about officer Daniel Pantaleo during the 2019 Democratic presidential debate on CNN, while Mayor Bill de Blasio and former vice president Joe Biden were spatting about the incident.“Pantaleo should have been fired years ago. Period,” Johnson, a Democrat, wrote.
Multiple democratic candidates, including Sen. Kirsten Gillbrand (D-NY), said during the debate that the cop should have been fired. De Blasio blamed the federal government for dragging its heels.
Pantaleo wrestled Garner to the concrete during an arrest for selling loose cigarettes in Tompkinsville in July 2014.Despite the fact that a medical examiner called Garner’s death a homicide as result of pressure placed on his neck, former Staten Island District Attorney Dan Donovan did not indict the officer for a crime.
US Attorney General William Barr made the decision to not federally prosecute Pantaleo in Garner’s death, The Post reported earlier this month.
The NYPD is expected to make a recommendation to de Blasio about whether Pantaleo should remain a police officer.