NYPD officer kills Eric Garner with banned chokehold

New York police officer Daniel Pantaleo places Eric Garner, a Black man, in a chokehold during an arrest on Staten Island on July 17, 2014. Garner repeatedly says, "I can't breathe," and dies after the encounter. The killing is recorded on video and becomes a national symbol of police violence and low-level enforcement practices that disproportionately affect Black communities. A Staten Island grand jury later declines to indict Pantaleo. Garner's final words become a central protest slogan in the movement against police brutality.