A New York City police officer involved in the arrest of a man who died in custody after being placed in an apparent chokehold has been stripped of his gun and badge and placed on desk duty, police said Saturday.
Officer Daniel Pantaleo, an eight-year NYPD veteran, and an officer who has been with the force for four years were both taken off the street after the death Thursday of 43-year-old Eric Garner on Staten Island, police said.
The department would not identify the second officer but said he would retain his gun and badge while on desk duty. The reassignment is effective immediately and will remain in effect while Garner's death is being investigated, police said.
The president of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, the city's largest police union, called Pantaleo's reassignment a "completely unwarranted, knee-jerk reaction."
The decision, Patrick Lynch said in a statement, "effectively pre-judges" the case and denies Pantaleo the "very benefit of a doubt that has long been part of the social contract that allows police officers to face the risks of this difficult and complex job."
Pantaleo did not immediately return a telephone message seeking comment.
Partial video of the encounter obtained by the New York Daily News shows the 6-foot-3, 350-pound Garner becoming irate and refusing to be handcuffed as officers tried to arrest him on suspicion of selling untaxed, loose cigarettes on a sidewalk.
The video then shows one of the officers placing Garner in what Police Commissioner William Bratton said Friday appeared to be a chokehold. The tactic, which can be fatal, is prohibited by departmental policy.
The city's Civilian Complaint Review Board said Saturday it would review more than 1,000 chokehold complaints it has received against officers over the last five years in an attempt to "discern why officers continue to use this forbidden practice."
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