A New York City police officer who used a fatal chokehold on an unarmed man during an arrest in 2014 should be fired, a police department disciplinary judge recommended in a long-awaited verdict Friday, and the department immediately suspended the officer.

Daniel Pantaleo had been on desk duty since he was seen in widely viewed cellphone videos using a banned chokehold on Eric Garner on a Staten Island sidewalk during an attempted arrest. Police believed Garner was selling loose, untaxed cigarettes.

Garner's repeated dying cries of "I can't breathe!" became a rallying cry for the burgeoning Black Lives Matter movement, which protests police brutality around the country.

The police department said in a statement that suspension was standard practice when a departmental judge recommends termination.