Daniel Pantaleo squirmed in his seat at his departmental trial Tuesday, as a top Police Academy official testified that the NYPD cop grabbed Eric Garner with a banned chokehold during his fatal arrest.
NYPD Inspector Richard Dee was shown three still images from the cellphone video that infamously shows Garner yelling “I can’t breathe!” while police arrested him on Staten Island on July 17, 2014.
In one image, Garner is face down with his right forearm and left hand on the sidewalk and Pantaleo is astride his back, with his left arm around Garner’s neck.
“It meets the definition of a chokehold,” Dee said of the action.
Dee, the commanding officer in charge of recruit training at the academy, also said Garner’s coughing and grimacing on the video showed that his breathing was being restricted.
Dee added that recruits at the academy are repeatedly taught that chokeholds are banned by NYPD, and are instructed to immediately “disengage” if they put a suspect in one.
During opening statements, defense lawyer Stuart London denied the Pantaleo used a chokehold, and said he instead applied a legitimate “seat-belt hold” while taking down Garner.
But Dee testified that there’s no record at the academy showing that Pantaleo was trained in the latter technique — which involves grabbing a suspect from behind by looping one arm under an armpit and the other over the opposite shoulder, then clasping hands and forcing the suspect to the ground.
Plainclothes cops started getting taught the maneuver in 2011, but Pantaleo received his undercover training in 2008, Dee said.
During cross-examination, Dee conceded that the video appeared to show Pantaleo trying to use the technique when he first put his hands on Garner — but he said the cop quickly “lost control.”
“He’s just wrapped around his neck and shoulders, trying to throw him down,” he said. “It’s difficult to do what he’s doing, trying to torque someone that big.”
Following the session, London insisted to The Post that Pantaleo was trained in the “seat-belt maneuver” at the academy, although the term might not have been used, and that one of his instructors, Sgt. Russell Jung would testify on his behalf.
At one point during Dee’s direct examination, he was asked whether he would have put his hands on Garner, who had a history of run-ins with the cops and said, “I’m tired of it. It stops today,” before Pantaleo grabbed him.
“Me, with 30 years of experience and sitting where I am … No, I would have waited a little bit longer,” Dee said.
NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Trials Rosemarie Maldonado is hearing evidence against Pantaleo, which could lead to his firing over Garner’s death.