Update: The Eric Garner case was settled for $5.9 million on the same day we published the article below in order for the NYPD to avoid litigation on the issue. The family had previously rejected a $5 million settlement.  Garner’s death had been ruled a homicide but none of the police officers or medics at the scene were indicted. The lawsuit was settled as a deadline for filing the complaint.
One Year Later Still No Justice In Eric Garner Killing
As the family of Eric Garner awaits closure a year after the father-of-six’s untimely death, the police officer who put the 43-year-old in a fatal chokehold said that he can’t wait to get back on the job.
Though he’s been stripped of his gun and is receiving death threats, 30-year-old Daniel Pantaleo wants to keep working for the New York City police, his lawyer said.
‘The unbelievable part is this has not soured him one bit on doing law enforcement,’ his lawyer Stuart London told the New York Daily News. ‘It hasn’t diminished his desire to help the citizens of this city.’
Garner’s widow, however, is enraged that there is even a possibility Pantaleo could get his job back.
Plain clothes NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo (pictured in green), 30, was not indicted after putting Garner in the fatal chokehold. Though he is on desk duty now, he can’t wait to return to his job as a police officer, Pantaleo’s lawyer said.
‘I think (he) should be thrown in the cell with Big Bubba and nobody watch ’em!’ Esaw Garner told the Daily News.
Garner’s mother, Gwen Carr, 66, said the fact that eight-year veteran Pantaleo is walking free haunts her.
‘There’s no justice because Eric is not here. He can’t get justice,’ Carr told the Daily News. ‘The only thing I can get is closure for him.’
As the one-year-anniversary of Garner’s July 17 death approaches, debate over Pantaleo’s future has resurfaced.
In December, a Staten Island grand jury voted not to indict the officer in Garner’s death, even though it was ruled a homicide after an autopsy by the city medical examiner.
Officials said he died from the chokehold and compressions to his chest.
A year after Garner’s death, his mother, Gwen Carr (left, pictured on July 7), said she still does not have closure and that she still hasn’t gotten justice for what happened to her son
Since then, the father-of-six’s upset relatives and supporters have pushed for news from a Justice Department investigation. And with the investigation ongoing, Pantaleo remains on desk duty.
‘They have to prove my client had a specific intent to deprive Eric Garner of a federally protected constitutional right,’ London said. ‘Based on all the pertinent information I have, they don’t reach that threshold in this case.’
Carr has been baffled that over the course of the past year, ‘nothing has gotten done’.
‘Still haven’t gotten any justice. The police officers are still walking around there free, still out on the street,’ she said.
Since his death, it was also revealed that Garner had a one-year-old daughter with a girlfriend. The baby, Legacy, could get a large chunk of money in a lawsuit the man’s family plans to file.
London said Pantaleo tried to release Garner from the chokehold, and that it was a takedown tactic he learned in his NYPD training.
In a video of the incident, Garner can be heard saying ‘I can’t breathe’ several times after being put in a chokehold during an arrest for selling loose cigarettes.
Garner’s widow, Esaw Garner, pictured here in May, said that no justice can be made because ‘Eric is not here. He can’t get justice’. But she still hopes to one day get closure
The video is still painful for his family members to watch.
‘It’s like me having to see him die over and over and over again,’ Esaw Garner told The Daily News before breaking down in tears. ‘It’s horrible. It’s heart-wrenching. They treated him like an animal… They wanted to kill him. It was like a modern-day lynching.’
Carr has created a shrine to her son in her Staten Island apartment, memorializing him in photos collages and drawings.
‘I may seem strong on the outside,’ Carr said. ‘But on the inside, especially when I’m having my moments, it just tears me apart. This thing has just ripped my heart out. I have a very tremendous void in my life right now.’
Carr is determined to keep fighting for justice for her son. She believes he was killed because of the color of his skin.
‘I always say, if Eric Garner was white and in the suburbs and doing the exact same thing my son was doing, this would never have happened,’ she said. ‘Being that he was who he was, they just felt like he was a nobody.’
There is no guarantee that Pantaleo will get his plain-clothes officer job back, even if he escapes federal charges.
He is the subject of an Internal Affairs investigation, which is on hold pending the federal probe. And regardless of what the Justice Department finds, the NYPD can bring Pantaleo up on departmental charges.