Remembering Eric Garner, Including Update

 

Today marks 4 years since Eric Garner life was taken at the hands of NYPD. Weeks after Garner died, the New York City medical examiner said he had been a victim of homicide, listing asthma and heart disease as contributing factors.

Four years after Eric Garner was put in a chokehold by a police officer on Staten Island and died, the New York Police Department says it will pursue disciplinary actions against officers involved in the case. Police had postponed the move out of deference to a Justice Department inquiry.

The federal criminal investigation "seems to have no end in sight," Deputy Commissioner Lawrence Byrne wrote in a letter to the civil rights division of the Justice Department — announcing his agency's intentions to pursue its own case if federal officials haven't announced criminal charges by later this summer.

The events leading up to Garner's death were captured on video. Police had approached Garner out of suspicion that he was selling untaxed cigarettes on the sidewalk. Several officers swarmed the unarmed black man, and Garner is heard repeatedly saying "I can't breathe."

The NYPD is giving the Department of Justice until the end of August to publicly announce its decisions about potential criminal charges in Eric Garner's death. It said it will move ahead with its own proceedings in early September.

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