A second video has emerged that documented what happened moments after a 43-year-old Staten Island man was put in a chokehold by a plainclothes officer and went limp during a botched arrest. Police say that Garner was selling loosie cigarettes, but witnesses say he had just broken up a fight.
In the footage posted to YouTube on Saturday, Eric Garner, who suffered a heart attack and died, appears to be unresponsive. He can be seen lying motionless in handcuffs as cops wait for paramedics to arrive.
At a press conference on Friday with Mayor de Blasio, Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said chokeholds are “prohibited” by NYPD policy:
The issue of chokeholds has been one that the department began to address as early as the 1980s, and over years, has refined its policies and procedures relative to it, as recently as last year, when another order was issued to the effect that chokeholds are, in fact, prohibited by the New York City Police Department, as they are, in fact, by most police departments in the United States.
An investigation is being conducted and the officers involved in the arrest and have been placed on desk duty.
