Family seeks federal probe of fatal NYPD arrest

NEW YORK - Family members of a New York City man who died in police custody, along with the Rev. Al Sharpton and others, met with federal prosecutors Friday to press for an investigation into the death.

"The civil rights of Eric Garner were violated," Sharpton said after the closed-door meeting with officials from the criminal division of the U.S. attorney's office in Brooklyn. "That led to his death."

An amateur video shows a plainclothes NYPD police officer placing Garner in what appears be a chokehold last week while arresting him on Staten Island. The 43-year-old Garner can be heard gasping, "I can't breathe!"

Chokeholds are banned under New York Police Department policy, but the tactic has been the subject of more than 1,000 complaints to the city's Civilian Complaint Review Board over the last five years, reports CBS New York. The technique is not illegal under state law.

Following Garner's death, New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton has vowed to retrain its officers on the use of force.

Autopsy results for Garner are pending. One officer has been stripped of his gun and badge pending an internal NYPD investigation into Garner's death and another has also been placed on desk duty. Two paramedics and two EMTs have been placed on modified duty.

Sharpton joined Garner's widow, Esaw; his mother, Gwen Carr; and his daughter, Erica, at the meeting with prosecutors. Garner's mother and widow walked solemnly into the U.S. attorney's office, holding hands with Sharpton. No family members spoke to reporters.

Civil rights lawyers Sanford Rubenstein and Michael Hardy and the Rev. Herbert Daughtry, a longtime activist clergyman from Brooklyn, also attended the meeting.

They met with the U.S. attorney's eastern district's chief of the criminal division, James McGovern, and the chief of civil rights for the criminal division, Taryn Merkl.

The U.S. attorney's office had no immediate comment on the meeting, spokesman Robert Nardoza said.

Sharpton likened Garner's death to notorious police brutality cases such as the 1991 beating of Rodney King in Los Angeles. He said the video shows that police and paramedics were indifferent to Garner's suffering.

"There can be no doubt at some point of 11 cries of 'I can't breathe,'" Sharpton said. "There can be no doubt based on the videotapes that clearly the EMS workers and other police did nothing intentionally to stop the illegal use of a chokehold and there can be no doubt that the chokehold was used with intent."

Sharpton said Garner's family is asking to meet with the Staten Island district attorney's office to "deal with the investigation there."

His family will speak publicly for the first time at a National Action Network rally on Saturday morning.