Barack Obama

By Barbara Goldberg and Sebastien Malo

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A New York City grand jury has decided not to charge a police officer who killed an unarmed black man with a chokehold while trying to arrest him for illegally selling cigarettes, the local district attorney said on Wednesday.

The deadly encounter in July on Staten Island, New York City’s smallest borough, was captured on video, which quickly spread over the Internet and fueled debate about how U.S. police use force, particularly against minorities.

Last week, a grand jury in Missouri decided not to indict a white police officer in another racially charged killing of a black man. The decision in that case sparked a spasm of violence in Ferguson, Missouri, with businesses burned down and looted.

Staten Island resident Eric Garner, a 43-year-old father of six, died on July 17 after police officers tackled him and put him in a chokehold. The city’s medical examiner ruled the death a homicide.

New York City police prepared on Wednesday for protests that could potentially paralyze major roads and tunnels in the city. About two dozen demonstrators lay down in the middle of Grand Central Station’s main hall in Midtown Manhattan in a silent protest as the evening rush hour began, as commuters crisscrossed through the terminal.

President Barack Obama, while not directly commenting on the case, said the grand jury decision spoke to “the concern on the part of too many minority communities that law enforcement is not working with them and dealing with them in a fair way.

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