Judge recommends firing of cop in choke hold death

NEW YORK — An administrative judge on Friday recommended firing the New York City police officer accused of using a choke hold in the 2014 death of an unarmed black man whose dying pleas of “I can’t breathe” became a rallying cry against alleged police brutality.

The final decision on whether to fire Officer Daniel Pantaleo over his role in the death of Eric Garner will be made by the city’s police commissioner later this month, but the department suspended Pantaleo from duty shortly after the judge’s decision became public.

Mayor Bill de Blasio hailed the judge’s report as “a step toward justice and accountability.”

“Today, for the first time in these long five years, the system of justice is working,” de Blasio said. “I hope this will now bring the Garner family a sense of closure and the beginning of some peace.”

Garner’s mother, Gwen Carr, said the judge’s report brought her “some relief ” but was overdue and fell short of true accountability.

Garner’s death came at a time of a growing public outcry over police killings of unarmed black men that sparked the national Black Lives Matter movement. Just weeks later, protests erupted in Ferguson, Mo., over the fatal shooting of unarmed teenager Michael Brown.

When a Staten Island grand jury declined to indict Pantaleo, 33, on state charges in December 2014, demonstrations flared in New York and several other cities.

The judge’s findings were provided to his lawyer and the Civilian Complaint Review Board, the watchdog agency that acted as a prosecutor at his department trial last spring.

Attorney Stuart London said Friday that Pantaleo did nothing wrong and plans to keep fighting for his job.