Police officer won't be charged

NEW YORK -- After years of silence, federal prosecutors said Tuesday they won't bring criminal charges against a white New York City police officer in the 2014 chokehold death of Eric Garner, a black man whose dying words -- "I can't breathe" -- became a national rallying cry against police brutality.

The decision to end a yearslong civil rights investigation without charges was made by Attorney General William Barr.

Civil rights prosecutors in Washington had favored filing criminal charges against officer Daniel Pantaleo, but ultimately Barr sided with other federal prosecutors based in Brooklyn who said evidence, including a bystander's widely viewed cellphone video, wasn't sufficient to make a case, officials said.

Richard Donoghue, the U.S. Attorney in Brooklyn, said at a news conference while Garner's death was tragic, there was insufficient evidence to prove Pantaleo or any other officers involved in the confrontation on a Staten Island sidewalk had willfully violated his civil rights.