Iris Baez, who lost a son after a police officer applied a chokehold speaks to the media during a break at the disciplinary trial of police officer Daniel Pantaleo in relation to the death of Eric Garner at 1 Police Plaza in the Manhattan borough of New York, New York, U.S., May 13, 2019. REUTERS/David 'Dee' Delgado
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The disciplinary trial of the New York City policeman who fatally choked an unarmed black suspect in 2014 opened on Monday with the officer's lawyer shredding a copy of the autopsy report that concluded the man, Eric Garner, was killed by a chokehold.
The trial of the white officer, Daniel Pantaleo, comes nearly five years after widely seen video of Garner's death sparked a national outcry about the treatment of black suspects by law enforcement. The clips, recorded on the cellphones of bystanders, showed Garner saying "I can't breathe" 11 times before he died.
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