A New York police sergeant will be docked 20 vacation days in connection with her actions at the scene of Eric Garner’s death in 2014.
Sgt. Kizzy Adonis pleaded guilty to a New York police departmental charge of failure to supervise, meaning she avoided an internal trial and instead received the punishment Wednesday, the New York Daily News reported.
Garner, an unarmed black man, died after former NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo placed him in a chokehold while attempting to arrest him for selling untaxed cigarettes on the street.
{mosads} The arrest was captured on video, and Garner can be heard saying “I can’t breathe,” which later became a rallying cry for the Black Lives Matter movement.
Police Commissioner James O’Neill concluded “that nothing about [Adonis’] actions on that day either caused the use of the banned chokehold or delayed the arrival of medical attention for Mr. Garner,” the New York Daily News reported.
Assistant NYPD Commissioner Devora Kaye confirmed that the case against the sergeant “was adjudicated” in a statement, according to the outlet.
Pantaleo was fired from the NYPD Monday. O’Neill told reporters after the announcement that he “examined the totality of the circumstances and relied on the facts.”
“If I had been in Officer Pantaleo’s situation I may have made similar mistakes,” O’Neill said Monday, according to the New York Daily News. “Being a police officer is one of the hardest jobs in the world.”