Eric Garner case involved the death of an unarmed man following a police encounter in Staten Island , New York City , in July 2014. It was one of several incidents in 2014 that highlighted tensions between police forces and African American communities in the United States. During the encounter, a white police officer grabbed Eric Garner, an African American, across the neck in an apparent chokehold. Moments later, other officers rushed in and forced Garner to the ground. Garner lost consciousness during the struggle and died shortly after.
A bystander recorded the encounter on video, and the footage circulated widely over the internet . That December, a grand jury voted not to indict (bring criminal charges against) the officer applying the hold. The grand jury’s decision sparked major protests in New York City and elsewhere, along with calls for reform and police retraining.
The death of Eric Garner.
In the late afternoon of July 17, 2014, a group of New York City Police Department (NYPD) officers approached Eric Garner in the Tompkinsville neighborhood of Staten Island. Garner was a 43-year-old father of six who had worked as a horticulturist (person who studies the growth of plants) for New York City’s parks department.
Witnesses stated that Garner had just attempted to break up a fight between two other people who had left the scene. The police officers approached Garner on suspicion that he had been selling cigarettes in the street illegally—a crime for which Garner had been arrested previously. Garner claimed he was doing nothing wrong and complained of police harassment.
As Garner argued, officers moved in to make an arrest. Garner waved his arms as police sought to control him. One of the officers, identified as 29-year-old Daniel Pantaleo, reached his arm around Garner’s neck in what appeared to be a choking position. Other officers helped wrestle Garner to the sidewalk. As Garner was being subdued, he repeatedly said, “I can’t breathe.” Garner lay on the sidewalk for several minutes before being transported to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Reactions and legal proceedings.
Mourners and protesters soon gathered in Staten Island. Video footage of the incident spread rapidly over the Internet, and many people criticized what they considered overly aggressive behavior by the police. New York City officials announced that an investigation was underway. The NYPD put Pantaleo on modified assignment, stripping him of his gun and badge and restricting him to desk work during the investigation. The Patrol Guide of the NYPD specifically prohibits officers from using chokeholds.
On August 1, the New York City medical examiner announced that Garner had died as a result of compression to his neck and chest and the prone position of his body during the police struggle. Other health concerns—including asthma, heart disease, and obesity—had also played a factor in his death. The medical examiner’s report classified Garner’s death as a homicide . The Staten Island district attorney announced that a case against Pantaleo would go before a grand jury.
On December 3, the grand jury revealed its decision not to bring criminal charges against Pantaleo. The decision sparked major protests in New York City, along with demonstrations in other cities, including Washington, D.C. The announcement in the Garner case came just nine days after another high-profile grand jury announcement in St. Louis County, Missouri. In that case, a grand jury chose not to indict a police officer who had fatally shot an unarmed African American teenager in the Missouri town of Ferguson. For information on the Ferguson case, see Ferguson protests of 2014 . Both the Ferguson case and the Staten Island case stirred widespread debate over the use of deadly force by police, relations between police and minority groups, and racial discrimination in criminal proceedings.
Hours after the Staten Island grand jury announcement, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the Justice Department would conduct a civil rights investigation into Garner’s death. In July 2019, Justice Department officials announced that they had decided not to bring civil rights charges against officer Pantaleo. The following month, a NYPD administrative judge found the officer guilty of misconduct during the encounter with Garner, and Pantaleo was fired.
