A grand jury's decision to indict a police officer in the death of a man in a darkened stairwell at a Brooklyn housing complex is only the latest in a string of high-profile grand jury cases involving New York Police Department officers.
— 2014: A grand jury declines to indict Officer Daniel Pantaleo in the chokehold death of Eric Garner, a 43-year-old father of six who was arrested under suspicion of selling loose cigarettes outside a Staten Island convenience store on July 17. Video showed him crying "I can't breathe" as Pantaleo wrapped his arms around his neck. The officer said he was using a legal takedown maneuver but critics said it was a chokehold, banned under NYPD policy.
— 2013: A grand jury declines to indict Detective Hassam Hamdy in the shooting death of Noel Polanco, a 22-year-old National Guardsman killed after the officer stopped his car on Oct. 4, 2012, on the Grand Central Parkway in Queens. Witnesses said it was a case of road rage.
— 2012: Officer Richard Haste was initially indicted on a manslaughter charge in the death of Ramarley Graham on Feb. 2, 2012, in the Bronx after a suspected drug bust gone awry. The case was tossed on a technicality, and another grand jury declined to indict the officer.
— 2007: Three of the five officers involved in the Nov. 25, 2006, shooting death of Sean Bell in Queens were indicted: Detectives Michael Oliver and Gescard F. Isnora on first-degree and second-degree manslaughter charges and Detective Marc Cooper on reckless endangerment charges. The officers were acquitted at a bench trial but were fired.
— 2004: Officer Richard Neri is not indicted in the shooting death of 19-year-old Timothy Stansbury on Jan. 24, 2004, in Brooklyn. Neri and a partner were patrolling a rooftop of a housing complex in Brooklyn. The officer testified he fired unintentionally when he was startled by Stansbury, who had pushed through the door.
— 1999: Four officers are indicted in the Feb. 4, 1999, police shooting of Amadou Diallo, who was unarmed, in the Bronx. Edward McMellon, Sean Carroll, Kenneth Boss and Richard Murphy were charged with second-degree murder and reckless endangerment. The trial was moved to Albany, where a jury acquitted them.
— 1995: Officer Francis Livoti was indicted in the 1994 chokehold death of Anthony Baez on Dec. 22, 1994, in the Bronx after Baez and his brother hit a police car with their football during a game. He was acquitted in a bench trial. In 1998, Livoti was convicted in Manhattan federal court of violating Baez's civil rights and was sentenced to 7½ years in prison. Livoti was released in April 2005.
— 1994: A Staten Island grand jury heard evidence for more than six months before declining to indict three police officers in the death of Ernest Sayon. The medical examiner had determined that Sayon died during a struggle with the officers after his air supply was cut off by pressure on his neck and chest.
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