Autopsy: Police chokehold caused NYC man's death
|
| FILE-
In this undated family file photo provided by the National Action
Network, Saturday, July 19, 2014, Eric Garner is shown. Garner’s death
was ruled a homicide by the New York City medical examiner after it was
determined that a choke hold police used while trying to arrest him in
July 2014, caused his death. |
NEW YORK (AP)
-- A medical examiner ruled Friday that a police officer's chokehold
caused the death of a man whose videotaped arrest and final pleas of "I
can't breathe!" sparked outrage and led to the overhaul of use-of-force
training for the nation's largest police department.
Eric
Garner, a black man whose confrontation with a white police officer has
prompted calls by the Rev. Al Sharpton for federal prosecution, was
killed by neck compressions from the chokehold and "the compression of
his chest and prone positioning during physical restraint by police,"
city medical examiner spokeswoman Julie Bolcer said.
Asthma,
heart disease and obesity were contributing factors in the death of the
43-year-old Garner, a 6-foot-3, 350-pound father of six, she said.
The
finding increases the likelihood that the case will be presented to a
grand jury to determine whether Officer Daniel Pantaleo, who placed
Garner in the chokehold, or any other officers involved in the
confrontation will face criminal charges. Pantaleo's attorney, Stuart
London, declined to comment.
Garner's wife, Esaw Garner, told the Daily News, "Thank God the truth is finally out."
Mayor
Bill de Blasio extended his sympathies to Garner's family in a
statement and pledged to continue repairing the relationship between
minority communities and the New York Police Department.
"I've said that we would make change, and we will," he said.
Chokeholds
are prohibited by the NYPD, but partial video of the July 17
confrontation shows an officer placing a chokehold on Garner, who was
being arrested on suspicion of selling untaxed, loose cigarettes.
Garner
then apparently loses consciousness.
Word of
the medical examiner's ruling spread Friday among passers-by on the
Staten Island street where the police confronted Garner and where
candles from a makeshift memorial flicker. Garner's neighbor Charlene
Thomas said the officers involved must be punished.
"They killed somebody," Thomas said. "Why, because they're cops, they gotta get away with this?"
A
spokesman for Staten Island District Attorney Daniel Donovan said
prosecutors were still investigating the death and awaited a full
autopsy report and death certificate from the medical examiner. Donovan
will have to determine whether to empanel a grand jury and charge
officers in Garner's death.
Federal officials
are monitoring the investigation, a Department of Justice spokeswoman
said, adding that the department has not begun its own inquiry.
Police
Commissioner Bill Bratton said officials were aware of the medical
examiner's findings and the department is cooperating with prosecutors.
He has said the NYPD's use-of-force training is lacking and has pledged
to retrain all 35,000 officers.
Pantaleo was
stripped of his gun and badge pending the investigation, and another
officer was placed on desk duty. Two paramedics and two emergency
medical technicians were suspended without pay.
The
president of the powerful Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, Patrick
Lynch, expressed his sympathies to Garner's family but noted Garner "was
a man with serious health problems."
"We
believe, however, that if he had not resisted the lawful order of the
police officers placing him under arrest, this tragedy would not have
occurred," he said.
Garner's family will join Sharpton on Saturday to address the medical examiner's ruling, a spokeswoman said.
Ramsey Orta, a friend of Garner's who videotaped his struggle with police, said the medical examiner's ruling wasn't surprising.
"I knew that was the cause because I saw it," he said. "Now somebody should get charged."
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