The New York City medical examiner’s office has not yet determined what caused the death of a man who appeared to be held in a chokehold as police attempted to arrest him last week.
Eric Garner, a 6-foot-3 and roughly 350-pound African-American man, died Thursday after police struggled to arrest him for allegedly selling loose cigarettes on a Staten Island corner, according to the New York Police Department.
The chokehold appeared to have caused little damage to Garner’s neck and trachea, according to preliminary autopsy results.
According to NYPD policy, use of the chokehold is prohibited. However, in the wake of Garner’s death, the city’s Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) is promising a thorough review of more than 1,000 police chokehold complaints.
The CCRB is an independent city agency, with subpoena power. It is not part of the police department and investigates complaints of alleged police misconduct.
The chokehold, or stranglehold, critically reduces or prevents either air (choking) or blood (strangling) from passing through the neck of an opponent.
This form of restraint is more dangerous than the carotid sleeper, which doesn’t restrict the airway and is considered a superior restraining method than manual strangulation.
“At this time, no determination has been made by the medical examiner’s office as to the cause and manner of death of Eric Garner,” the office’s spokeswoman Julie Bolcer said to ABC News. “The cause and manner of death are pending further studies, and no findings will be released until the investigation is complete. Any other information or suggestion to the contrary is simply not true.”
Officer Daniel Pantaleo, the eight-year NYPD officer shown on video putting Garner in an apparent chokehold, has been stripped of his badge and gun and is awaiting the outcome of the dual investigations by the district attorney and Internal Affairs.
S.C. Rhyne is a blogger and novelist in New York City. Follow the author on Twitter @ReporterandGirl, http://Facebook.com/
