Justice Department Won’t Bring Federal Charges Against Police Officer in Eric Garner Case

Prosecutors said they lacked evidence to bring civil-rights charges against Daniel Pantaleo.

Federal prosecutors won’t bring civil-rights charges against a New York police officer accused of placing an unarmed black man in a deadly chokehold, Justice Department officials said Tuesday, five years after the incident became a flashpoint in a national conversation over race and policing.

Prosecutors in Brooklyn and Washington, D.C., agonized over the case for years but ultimately concluded they lacked sufficient evidence to prove New York Police Department Officer Daniel Pantaleo, who is white, willfully violated Eric Garner’s rights during the videotaped July 17, 2014, confrontation on Staten Island. Attorney General William Barr made the final call after years of disagreement among prosecutors involved in the case, a senior Justice Department official said.

“The evidence here does not support charging Police Officer Daniel Pantaleo or any other officer with a federal criminal civil-rights violation,” Richard Donoghue, the U.S. attorney in Brooklyn, said on Tuesday.

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