NEW YORK _ New York's top cop has doubled down on his decision to fire Officer Daniel Pantaleo over Eric Garner's chokehold death.
"That was the decision that had to be made," New York Police Department Commissioner James O'Neill said Thursday on "CBS This Morning." "The message is that there's accountability in the NYPD. That's what the message is."
The "CBS This Morning" interview was O'Neill's first comments since firing Pantaleo on Monday.
O'Neill said that with Sgt. Kizzy Adonis agreeing to forfeit 20 vacation days for failing to supervise Garner's arrest, no further disciplinary action will be taken in the case.
"This is where it ends," O'Neill said.
Garner's relatives have demanded that all of the officers involved in the July 17, 2014, clash with the father of six be disciplined.
Garner, 43, was selling loose, untaxed cigarettes on a Staten Island sidewalk and when he refused to surrender, cops tried to take the 6-foot-2, 395-pound Garner into custody, with Pantaleo grabbing him from behind.
Garner yelled "I can't breathe" 11 times while he was on the ground _ all of it captured on cellphone video.
Pantaleo was cleared by a Staten Island grand jury and federal prosecutors chose not to file civil rights charges against the cop.
O'Neill said that following exhaustive interviews with police at the scene and witnesses, it was decided that no department charges would be filed against any other officers besides Pantaleo and Adonis.
His decision to fire Pantaleo has been blasted by New York's law enforcement community.
"Commissioner O'Neill has solidified his place as a puppet for the anti-police de Blasio administration," the Suffolk County Police Benevolent Association said in a statement released Wednesday. "So long as O'Neill and de Blasio run NYC and the NYPD, mob rule will have their way and the hard-working police and law-abiding citizens in the city will suffer."
The Police Benevolent Association, the city's largest police union, has called for a vote of no confidence in O'Neill's leadership. The union also hinted at a work slowdown, instructing rank-and-file cops to call for backup and a supervisor whenever a suspect resists arrest.
O'Neill said it was "difficult to hear" that some cops have no confidence in his leadership.
"But I have all the confidence in the men and women in the NYPD that they will continue to do their job," he said, adding that it was his decision alone to fire Pantaleo.
"I do have a boss," he said about Mayor Bill de Blasio. "But I have the final decision in these matters."
