Eric Garner died during a 2014 police encounter. An officer involved might lose his job.

In 2014, the death of Eric Garner, an unarmed black man who died after an encounter with New York Police Department officers that was captured on video, called national attention to the ways black men and women are mistreated by law enforcement.

Garner’s death helped fuel the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement. Now, five years later, a disciplinary hearing for the NYPD officer who played a key role in that fatal encounter has just wrapped up — and the officer’s job hangs in the balance.

Thursday was the final day of the NYPD department hearing for Daniel Pantaleo, the 33-year-old officer accused of using a department-prohibited chokehold to restrain Garner on July 17, 2014. His administrative trial — an extended disciplinary hearing that could culminate in a judge recommending if the officer should lose his badge — was overseen by the NYPD and began in New York City on May 13.

Pantaleo underwent a disciplinary trial rather than a criminal one, meaning that the consequences he could face range from losing vacation days to being terminated from his position. The presiding judge now has 90 days to submit her recommendations to the NYPD commissioner, who will have the final say in what actually happens.

In 2014, a Staten Island grand jury declined to indict Pantaleo on criminal charges for Garner’s death, a decision that was heavily criticized by activists and sparked protests in December 2014. The NYPD initially argued that it could not pursue disciplinary action against the officer until a federal investigation into Garner’s death was completed, but in 2018, the NYPD’s Civilian Complaint Review Board announced that Pantaleo would finally receive an administrative trial this year.

A federal investigation into Garner’s death continues to drag on with no updates. Due to a statute of limitations, the Department of Justice must announce if it will pursue any charges against Pantaleo by July of this year.

Over the course of the administrative trial, the prosecution argued that Pantaleo used a chokehold on Garner, and intended to restrict the man’s breathing. The defense countered that Garner ultimately died due to poor health and that Pantaleo did not use a chokehold, but was instead attempting to restrain Garner with a different technique that police officers are taught during training.

The trial marked the first time that the public heard key details about the aftermath of Garner’s death (the previous grand jury process was sealed), and testimony revealing previously unreleased information in the case has angered Garner’s family and activists. Garner’s family says that a decision to terminate Pantaleo’s employment is one of the last remaining ways he can face consequences for Garner’s 2014 death.

”It’s been five years — five years we’ve been on the front lines trying to get justice,” Gwen Carr, Garner’s mother, told supporters on the first day of the trial in May. “They’re still trying to sweep it under the rug.“

On July 17, 2014, Eric Garner, a 43-year-old father of six, was confronted by police officers on a street corner in Staten Island, New York, for allegedly selling untaxed loose cigarettes. When Garner pulled away from an officer, he was allegedly placed in a chokehold by Pantaleo. After being lowered to the ground, Garner was restrained by several officers.

In a video taken by Ramsey Orta, a friend of Garner’s and a bystander at the scene, Garner could be heard telling officers, “I can’t breathe” 11 times. NYPD officers later called an ambulance for Garner after noticing his breathing difficulty, but additional video showed that he was not given oxygen for several minutes after the paramedics arrived.

Garner was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at the hospital. An autopsy confirmed that he died of a heart attack and that while Garner had dealt with obesity and asthma, the chokehold and the pressure officers applied to his chest while pinning him to the ground also played a role.

Pantaleo was the only person charged with causing Garner’s death, but a grand jury declined to indict him in December 2014. At least one other officer involved in the incident— Pantaleo’s supervisor Sgt. Kizzy Adonis — is expected to face a departmental trial in the coming months.

The administrative trial hinges on two main questions. The first is if Pantaleo used a chokehold, a maneuver that has been banned by the NYPD since 1993 (though media reports show that the technique is still being used), when he restrained Garner.

The second is if Pantaleo intentionally restricted Garner’s breathing in the moments after the two men fell to the ground and the officer maintained the hold for 15 seconds.

On both of these points, the prosecution argues that the answer is yes.

”Eric Garner didn’t swing or hit any of these officers. There were three other officers there that didn’t use a chokehold,” prosecutor Jonathan Fogel, who is representing the city’s civilian complaint review board, said on May 13. “This officer didn’t let go even after Mr. Garner fell to the ground ... when he locked his hands together, it became more than reckless.”

Orta, Garner’s friend who recorded the video of the police encounter that went viral, agreed that Garner had done nothing wrong in the moments before Pantaleo restrained him. As Orta discussed the video showing Garner’s death, Garner’s mother and sister left the courtroom.

Other witnesses for the prosecution also agreed that Garner was placed in a chokehold. On May 15, a medical examiner said that Pantaleo “set into motion a lethal sequence of events,” when he attempted to restrain Garner. During her testimony, the prosecution also showed pictures of the autopsy performed shortly after Garner died, saying that trauma to Garner’s body was consistent with signs of his airway being restricted.

The defense has largely countered that Garner died because of his health and that Pantaleo’s efforts to restrain Garner did not cause the man to have an asthma attack and go into cardiac arrest. Pantaleo’s lawyer has also argued that his client never used a chokehold, but instead used a “seatbelt” technique taught during department training — though one retired NYPD instructor later testified that this technique was not taught the year Pantaleo was trained.

Garner “was a ticking time bomb and set these facts in motion by resisting arrest,” Pantaleo’s lawyer Stuart London said at the beginning of the trial.

Even so, the first day of the defense on May 16 only led to more scrutiny for the officers involved in the incident. One particularly noteworthy testimony revealed that NYPD Lt. Christopher Bannon texted another officer that the incident with Garner was “not a big deal,” drawing gasps in the courtroom and heated objections from members of Garner’s family.

Bannon has countered that he was not dismissing Garner’s death, but was instead trying to calm his officers.

And on May 21, Pantaleo’s partner on July 17, 2014, NYPD officer Justin Damico, admitted to filing arrest paperwork exaggerating the charges against Garner. The Associated Press reports that Damico — who was one of the officers on the scene when Pantaleo restrained Garner — also said that he initially believed that Garner was “playing possum” as he laid unresponsive on the ground.

Pantaleo’s hearing was briefly paused from May 22 to June 5 as the defense waited for a medical expert who could rebut the claims made by the medical examiner who performed Garner’s autopsy. That expert testified on June 5, telling the court that Garner’s death was not caused by neck compression.

“He probably felt he couldn’t breathe,” Michael Graham, a chief medical examiner for the city of St. Louis and professor of pathology at St. Louis University, said after reviewing cellphone videos of Pantaleo restraining Garner and reviewing the autopsy report. “But the fact is he could breathe.”

As the administrative trial came to a close this week, there was a lingering question of whether Pantaleo himself would testify. The officer ultimately declined to do so, with his lawyer arguing that it would be “reckless” to provide testimony as the federal civil rights investigation continues. That move was criticized by a prosecutor representing the civilian complaint review board, who said that Pantaleo’s decision should be held against him as the judge reviews the trial.

With the trial ending on Thursday following testimony from 14 witnesses, it is now up to Rosemarie Maldonado, the NYPD’s deputy commissioner of trials, to issue a recommendation on what punishments, if any, Pantaleo should face. Those recommendations, which do not need to be made public, will then be sent to NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill, who can decide to follow them or not.

That Garner’s death, which drew large protests, galvanized racial justice activists and at one point seemed poised to lead to criminal charges for Pantaleo will instead culminate in a decision made by NYPD officials has frustrated activists and Garner’s family.

“There is no justice at all for Eric,” Carr, Garner’s mother, said in a recent interview with the Guardian. “They murdered him and if there was going to be justice, it would have been at the point when he said ‘I can’t breathe.’”

That point has been reiterated by other longtime observers of Garner’s case. Shortly after the trial began in May, Matt Taibbi, a journalist who wrote a 2017 book about Garner’s life and death, wrote in Rolling Stone that even a department ruling against Pantaleo was “illusory justice.”

“Without a doubt, this trial is a relief to Garner’s mother, Gwen Carr, and other family members who waited this long to have something like a day in court,” Taibbi wrote. “Still, the case is characteristic of how slowly (and ineffectually) the wheels of justice can turn.”

Carr has also said that no matter the outcome of the recent department trial, her family will continue to press for other officers involved in the July 2014 encounter to be held accountable. “The trial is over today, but we need to continue,” Carr said at a press conference on Thursday afternoon. “We will keep my son’s legacy alive. If they think we are going away, they are sadly mistaken.”