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New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said it is an emotional day for his city, but he called on people to react peacefully to the decision by a New York grand jury 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 decision comes just a week and a half after a grand jury in Missouri decided not to indict a white police officer in another racially charged killing of a black man.

Eric Garner, a 43-year-old father of six, died in a July 17 incident on Staten Island, New York City's smallest borough, after police officers tackled him and put him in a chokehold.

The city's medical examiner ruled the death a homicide. The New York Police Department's patrol manual bans chokeholds, calling them dangerous.

The deadly encounter was captured on a video that quickly spread over the Internet and helped fuel debates about how U.S. police use for