[James O'neill, Nypd Commissioner:] He approached Mr. Garner to make an arrest. That offense could have resulted in a summons but Mr. Garner refused to provide identification which meant what have been brought to the precinct for processing. For several minutes on that widely viewed video, Mr. Garner makes it abundantly clear that he will not go willingly with the police officers. He refused to cooperate with the arrest and to comply with lawful orders. The video makes clear that Officer Pantaleo's original efforts to take Mr. Garner into custody were appropriate, and that he initially attended to two maneuver sanction by the police department. Officer Pantaleo first grabbed Mr. Garners' right write then attempted an arm bar technique in preparation for handcuffs to use. Mr. Garner immediately twisted and pulled and raised both of his hands while repeatedly telling officers to not to touch him. Officer Pantaleo then wrapped his arms around Mr. Garner's upper body. Up to that point and there's tense and rapidly involving situation, there was nothing to suggest that Officer Pantaleo attempted to place Mr. Garner in a chokehold. But what happened next is the matter we must address. The two men stumbled backward towards the large plate grass window at the store front behind them and Officer Pantaleo's back made contact with the glass causing the window to visibly buckle and warp. The person videotaping the episode later testified at the NYPD trial that he thought both men would crash through the glass. At that point in the video that Officer Pantaleo seen with his arms clasped together and his left forearm pressed against Mr. Garner's neck in what constitutes a chokehold. NYPD court ruled that while certainly not preferable that hold was acceptable during that brief moment in time because the risk of falling through the window was so high. But that
[Unidentified Male:] Mr. O'Neill,
[O'neill:] I'm not going to talk about rumors. Let's talk about the decision that Rosemarie made, the decision that was affirmed by Deputy Commissioner Tucker, and the decision I just made today. It's an extremely difficult decision.
[Unidentified Male:] When did you actually make this decision? Was this up to the wire or had you made this decision a couple days ago?
[O'neill:] Hey Mark, I think you know me long enough by now that this was not an easy decision. It's not something that I could make over a few hours. You know, I've been thinking about this since the day I was sworn in as police commissioner. So it's the decision was made in the last couple of days. Tony?
[Unidentified Male:] Commissioner, has there been any determination made about any mentioned rights or benefits?
[O'neill:] Yes. He's being terminated. So whatever contributions he made to the pension system he'll get back. Marcia? Hold on. So immediately, I'm sending out my remarks and the video of this press conference so they know what you all know. And I've been a cop a long time. And if I was still a cop, I'd probably be mad at me. I would. You're not looking out for us. But I am. It's my responsibility as police commissioner to look out for the city and certainly to look out for the New York city police officers. They took this job to make a difference. And you all know the city has been transformed, had a lot of help. But it's the cops out there right now and the thousands that have come before us that continue to make this city safe. Some will be angry. And I have a great executive staff. These police officers do a terrific job each and every day and we'll have to work through this. It's a resilient organization. I did this based on the evidence and testimony at the trial.
[Unidentified Male:] Commissioner, our understanding is that negotiations went back and forth Friday and Saturday and then at one point you were told or instructed by city hall the thing has to go a certain way.
[O'neill:] No. That's not this is my decision. There are a couple possible outcomes but this is the decision that the police commissioner makes. This is a disciplinary case like other disciplinary cases. And it's my decision. Rocco, I'm going to get to you in a second. Hold on. Rocco?
[Unidentified Male:] Did you follow the trial or did you wait until the end of the trial? And then can you talk about what you
[O'neill:] I did not follow the trial day to day. I waited for the testimony to come up and the evidence to come up. I have a staff that works for me up at my office. They do disciplinary cases. They reviewed it. We got Rosemarie's decision, we look at that and we moved forward. Right here, the blonde haired.
[Unidentified Male:] Have you spoken to the Garner family?
[O'neill:] I have not. Commissioner Tucker has attempted to reach out to them. A couple different phone calls. Didn't happen too long ago. We're waiting for a call back. Away in the corner over there.
[Unidentified Female:] Have you spoken to Officer Pantaleo
[O'neill:] No, this is the first time. This is the announcement it was from here. What's that? I talked to with Mayor de Blasio about process and possible outcomes.
[Unidentified Male:] Commissioner?
[O'neill:] Ashley?
[Unidentified Female:] Commissioner, in her decision, the Judge Maldonado indicated that Pantaleo was
[O'neil:] So this all this whole situation transpired in seconds. I'm sure no one in this room, if they were involved in no one in this room probably had to except the police had to arrest anybody in a physical struggle. And if they could recount step for step what they did, I think that would be nothing short of a miracle. This is the decision Rosemary made Rosemarie made. This is a was affirmed by the first deputy commissioner and I'm agreeing with that. Yes?
[Unidentified Male:] Sir, just to be clear. Are you making this decision to agree with the judge or are you making this decision because you believe it is also the right decision?
[O'neill:] I am this is there is a department trial. There is a process. Rosemarie made the decision again affirmed by Ben Tucker and I agree with both of their findings. Yes?
[Unidentified Male:] You spoke about wishing that Eric Garner wouldn't have resisted and would have just complied. You also said you wish that Officer Pantaleo would have waited for backup. So what is the lesson for your officers coming out of this decision?
[O'neill:] So immediately after this back in 2014, Ben Tucker was the deputy commissioner of training still at the time. We put all of our police officers through a three day course including deescalation. We've done a lot of other things that we've done fair and impartial policing and every police officer has wearing a body-worn camera now. There's a lot of things that come out of this incident. And every time there is an incident that affects that NYPD there's always something to learn. Right behind you? Yes.
[Unidentified Female:] Commissioner, you pointed out in the beginning of your remarks about Officer Pantaleo's good record as a police officer but he was also being monitored for
[O'neill:] Yes.
[Unidentified Female:] for using use of force. How do you square those two things? And is the monitoring working or should
[O'neill:] Officer Pantaleo had 289 arrests. As far as we can tell, searching through searching through all the records, no other person that he arrested was injured. He did have a number of resisting arrests which is not unusual. He had some CCRBs, the one that was where he was substantiated, that was a bad stop, not use of force. So all of these have to be taken in its totality. Out of that 289 arrests, there were a number of gun arrests. And what does the NYPD do each and everyday? We try to reduce gun violence in this city. So that I have to look at his record. That's part of the disciplinary system. Yes?
[Unidentified Male:] You had a decision not to discipline Officer Pantaleo impact on the community, have any factors in your decision making in this?
[O'neill:] So I'm not going to stand up here and say I didn't think about that. But I had to be guided by the facts that were brought out in the department trial and that was sent up to our office. I see a lot of journalists here that went through 2014. The protests, the murder of Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos to say that, you know, that's always that is never out of my mind. I think about that every day whether there is a department trial or not. So I can't stand up here and say I didn't think about that. But that's not what how I made my final decision. Right here.
[Unidentified Female:] Mayor de Blasio promised
[O'neill:] This is the outcome of our trial. We need it to be fair and impartial. And it was a fair and impartial trial. Right here with the glasses.
[Unidentified Male:] Has anyone spoken to the family to Mr. Garner yet? What would you say to them right now?
[O'neill:] There's from day one we said that there was going to be a fair and impartial trial and this is the result. Make no mistake about it, this is a tragedy for the Garner family. I fully understand that. Mr. Garner was somebody's son, somebody's dad. Everybody in the NYPD understand that's. Right here.
[Unidentified Male:] A couple questions. First when this termination effective, is it immediate?
[O'neill:] It's an immediate termination.
[Unidentified Male:] And second, reading Judge Maldonado's decision, was there anything in it that you disagreed with?
[O'neill:] I agreed with the content of her decision. Who didn't go yet? Right here. Yes?
[Unidentified Female:] Commissioner, during the department's trial, it came out that a lot of the partner
[O'neill:] Right after this,
[Unidentified Male:] Commissioner, you spoke a bit about your time as a cop. Would you approach this thing from a position of almost reluctance
[O'neill:] So I can't remove myself from the fact that I was a uniformed cop for 34 years. And I think that's what makes this so difficult that every member of law enforcement in this country that works and keeps this country safe and the city safe looked at that and said that could possibly be me. And that's it's in my DNA. It's who I am. It's but as police commissioner, I have to think about the city. I have to think about the rules and regs of the NYPD and make sure that people follow them. In the back. What did you say? I think I stated that. And I said if I were still a police officer, I would probably not be happy. But we've been through a lot of things with the NYPD and it's great history. I know that men and women that do this job are resilient. Somebody calls for help, dials 911, someone flags him down, they're not going to think about this decision. They're going to think about why they took this job and help that person no matter who they are. Right here.
[Unidentified Male:] Before you announce your decision, you said you were confident this was the right one. Was there something in particular? Was there a moment when you realized that? And what do you see as commissioner that the officer on the screen might be upset with the decision doesn't see?
[O'neill:] So as I said, I went through the testimony. I looked at the video a number of times. I know what the definition of a chokehold is. This is what led me to this decision. And again, a difficult decision. At the back.
[John King, Cnn:] It's the New York City Police Commissioner James O'Neill explaining there. He's been going on for 20 minutes. Now, his decision, he says it was a painful decision but his decision ultimately to fire, to terminate Officer Daniel Pantaleo. He was the officer held accountable for the death of Eric Garner in a chokehold more than five years ago. Five years and one month ago. This case has dragged on for years because of Justice Department and other grand jury investigations. The police commissioner saying it was a painful decision but he had determined that a police trial judge was correct in saying that Officer Pantaleo, yes, put Eric Garner in a chokehold but then when they fell to the ground had every opportunity to move to what the commissioner called less lethal alternatives as he tried to bring him into custody. Eric Garner was resisting arrest. But the police commissioner saying that Eric that Officer Pantaleo should have stopped that prohibited chokehold. Our crime and justice reporter Shimon Prokupecz has been in New York tracking all this. Shimon, the commissioner saying he is sure a lot of men and women in blue in New York city police don't like this decision today but that he believes it's the right one.
[Shimon Prokupecz, Cnn Crime And Justice Reporter:] Yes. And, John, while you're seeing him stand there for so long now, some 30 minutes taking questions, he's really speaking in some ways to the rank-and- file of the police department. He knows that they're not going to be happy with this decision. And that is something that has weighed very heavily on the police commissioner. Look, I know from talking to people that this was not an easy decision for him because he was very concerned about the impact of this kind of a decision, firing this police officer, leaving him without a pension and essentially just saying OK, we're done with you. You violated some of the rules and regulations of the NYPD. You're now fired and you have nothing after your several years of being in the police department concerned him greatly. This was not a decision as we know and as we can hear from him, he was pretty emotional at times that came easy. The one thing we're not hearing in a lot of his statements so far is anything about the mayor. And we should not forget the role that the mayor had in all of this. Remember it was at a CNN debate that the mayor stood up and said that the Garner family would have justice at some point. It was after the Department of Justice issued its decision not to pursue charges, not to charge the officer in this case. And all that was left for the family was whether or not the police department, the NYPD was going to take action against Officer Pantaleo. And the mayor essentially promises to the community, promised it to the world saying that the family was going to get justice. And so we'll hear from the mayor in a little while. And in the coming days, we're probably going to hear stories about some of the pressure that the mayor put on the police commissioner to make sure that this officer is fired. And we'll see where it goes from there. Look, this officer will be able to sue. He's going to sue the NYPD to try and get his job back. They're going to argue in court that this is unfair. The Department of Justice did not bring charges. A prosecutor
[King:] And Shimon, in the moment we have left, just explain to anybody watching, this was five years and a month ago. There was an original grand jury that looked into this. They decided not to prosecute on local charges. Then it was held up, the commissioner said because first the Obama administration then the Trump administration's Justice Department was looking at it. So this is the end of any penalty punishment against Officer Pantaleo but not the end of this drama.
[Prokupecz:] It is over, you know, it is over for the officer obviously. There was a lot of end fighting even at the Department of Justice at the time between the FBI, between the Department of Justice. There were people at the Department of Justice who wanted to bring charges against Pantaleo that obviously after Trump came in, that did not happen. So but this is the end of the line here certainly for the family. I think this is going to be good news for them, for the mayor. He's going to be happy with this outcome. And now we see, you know, what this officer does and what the union does. And do they sue the NYPD?
[King:] All right. And we'll see that and we'll watch the legal fallout, we'll watch the political fallout. Brianna Keilar picking up our coverage after a quick break.