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Despite video evidence clearly depicting the act, the NYPD cop who put the fatal chokehold on Eric Garner claims he never applied the maneuver. Officer Daniel Pantaleo actually told investigators that he used a takedown technique, not a chokehold.

Officer Pantaleo spoke with internal affairs investigators this week, and through his attorney is was expressed that he did not choke Garner to death. Although the death was ruled a homicide and the aforementioned video evidence, Pantaleo stuck to his guns.

CNN reports:

“He indicated he never used a chokehold,” said Stuart London, Pantaleo’s attorney. “He used a takedown technique he was taught in the academy. He said he never exerted any pressure on the windpipe and never intended to injure Mr. Garner.”

London said Pantaleo had been trying to arrest “someone who was noncompliant.” Speaking to investigators about the case on Monday, “he was confident and related the facts in an accurate and professional manner,” London said.

A Staten Island grand jury decided not to indict Pantaleo given the presented evidence. At the conclusion of the criminal investigation, the police internal affairs investigation resumed after being put on hold. NYPD commissioner Bill Bratton says this current look into the case will take about three months.

Investigators are currently interviewing other officers who witnessed the events of that fateful summer day when Garner lost his life.

Protests have been steady occurring around the nation in support of the Garner family. On Thursday, congressional staff members staged a walkout in Washington and took to the steps of Capitol Hill to call attention to Garner’s case and that of slain Ferguson teenager Michael “Mike” Brown.

Watch CNN’s report below.

Photo: CNN