Buffalo officials are demanding a probe into the 2008 firing of a Black police officer who intervened when her partner carried out a chokehold on a suspect

• Cariol Horne was fired from the Buffalo Police Department in 2008 for intervening when her white partner put a suspect in a chokehold two years prior.
• Horne had jumped on the back of her partner when he put a suspect in a chokehold. An internal investigation in 2008 said Horne had displayed an "extreme lack of professionalism" and put "lives in danger."
• Following George Floyd's fatal arrest, the Buffalo Common Council passed a resolution calling for the New York State Attorney General's Office to take a second look at the case.
• Horne was one year shy of qualifying for her pension when she was fired. The city council has asked the attorney general to look how many days Horne would need to work to get her pension.

Buffalo officials are calling for an investigation into the firing of a Black police officer who intervened when her white partner put a suspect in a chokehold 14 years ago.

Cariol Horne was fired from the Buffalo Police Department in 2008 for jumping on the back of fellow officer Gregory Kwiatkowski when he put suspect David N. Mack in a chokehold during a November 2006 arrest.

An internal investigation found that Horne displayed an "extreme lack of professionalism" and put "lives in danger," The Buffalo News reported at the time.

But after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, the Buffalo Common Council passed a resolution asking the New York State Attorney General's Office to take another look at Horne's firing, and the loss of her pension. Floyd died after officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on his neck for more than eight minutes.

Horne had served 19 years with the police when she was fired, a year shy of qualifying for her pension.

The resolution passed last week by the city council asks the attorney general's office to look into how many days Horne would need to work in order to qualify for her pension.

In an interview with CNN on Tuesday, Horne said her firing shows the system in place that keeps officers from intervening and reporting when another officer uses excessive force.

"The message was sent that you don't cross that blue line and so some officers — many officers don't," Horne said.

"I don't want any officer to go through what I have gone through," she added. "I had five children and I lost everything but [the suspect] did not lose his life. So, if I have nothing else to live for in life, at least I can know that I did the right thing and that [he] still breathes."

Buffalo Common Council President Darius Pridgen told WIVB that now is the perfect time to reexamine Horne's case.

"We now have a totally different attorney general, we have a total different climate and atmosphere and lens right now, across this world, as it deals with policing in the United States," Pridgen said, according to the outlet. "So I think it's an opportune time to look back at this case and to see were there civil rights violations can she be made whole."

Kwiatkowski, the officer Horne jumped on during the 2006 arrest, was later sentenced to four months in jail for using excessive force in a separate arrest of four Black teens in 2009. He retired from the force before the sentence was handed down, citing post-traumatic stress disorder, according to the Buffalo News.

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