Eric Garner Death: NYPD Undergoes Addtional Training After Death of Man in Police Custody
Every officer in the New York Police Department will be required to undergo additional training on the use of force after a man died last week in police custody, NYPD Police Commissioner William Bratton said Tuesday, according to ABC News.
Eric Garner died Thursday after police struggled to arrest him in the New York borough of Staten Island on suspicion of selling loose cigarettes.
Garner, who was 6-foot-3 and weighed more than 300 pounds, can be seen in a recording of the incident telling police he couldn't breathe after he was placed in a chokehold by a plainclothes officer. NYPD rules ban chokeholds.
It was later learned that Garner was asthmatic, although initial reports say that he died of a heart attack.
Bratton said NYPD investigators have talked with the FBI and said it wouldn't surprise him if the feds started a civil rights case. The handling of the Garner arrest led Bratton to say, "We need to do a lot more, a lot more, on the issue of training."
A group from the NYPD is expected to head to Los Angeles to learn from the LAPD program, according to the Wall Street Journal. Bratton used to lead the LAPD.
News of Garner's death has caused uproar in the U.S., especially from the black community. The Rev. Al Sharpton led a march this week protesting the way the NYPD handled the incident, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Fanning the flames caused by the incident is the report that the NYPD officers involved in the incident filed a police report that played down the events that led to Garner's death.
The police report quoted two NYPC officers, Sgt. Dhanan Saminath and Sgt. Kizzy Adonis, who told superiors that cops were "maintaining control of him" and that Garner's condition did not seem serious. Though, Adonis told her bosses that she thought she heard Garner say he couldn't breathe.
The officer who held Garner in the chokehold, 8-year NYPD veteran Officer Daniel Pantaleo, has been placed on desk duty and his gun and badge have been withheld, pending the outcome of the investigation.
Bratton said there would be a "special focus on the use of force" and "retraining every member of the New York Police Department in the coming weeks and months and years."
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