Rich Zeoli Talks To Former Police Commissioner About Grand Jury Decision
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Rich Zeoli spoke with former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik following a grand jury in New York's decision not to indict Daniel Pantaleo, the police officer investigated following the death of Eric Garner this summer.
Kerik said the grand jury reached the verdict he expected they would.
"I am not surprised. I said this from the beginning that I believed then and I believe more so today that Eric Garner would be alive had he not resisted arrest. I think the grand jury got to see the evidence. It got to see the tape. It got hear from the officers. It got to hear from all the witnesses. Based on that evidence, based on what they saw, what they heard, they made a decision not indict the officer."
Kerik told Zeoli he does not agree with reports that the officer broke the law in restraining Garner.
"I keep hearing the press and media say, 'it's an illegal choke hold.' It is not. It's not against the law. It's against New York City department policy. That's what it is and these officers, they will have to deal with that part of this through department hearings...There was no violation of the law by them implementing a hold, a restraining hold, whatever you want to call it, a choke hold, it's not against the law."
Kerik was unsure if he thinks Pantaleo will be fired for his actions.
"I think the officer and his attorneys will go before the review and he will have to explain why he made the decision to do that. I don't know all the evidence, but by the looks of it, what I saw on the tape, this guy outweighed that cop by about 150 pounds. That cop made a decision that the only way he was going to be able to put him in handcuffs was to put him in that restraining hold. We don't know if that led to his death. The grand jury heard medical evidence as well. This guy had medical issues. Did that have anything to do with his death? We don't know that."
