NEW YORK — The deadly confrontation five summers ago flickers in Gwen Carr’s mind, competing for attention with warm memories of her late son Eric Garner’s life. For all the smiles and laugher they shared, there are flashes of Garner being grabbed by a New York City police officer and crying out: “I can’t breathe.”
Carr said she has been reliving what she pointedly calls “my son’s murder” every day since his July 2014 death: Garner succumbing to cardiac arrest after a white officer wearing plainclothes, Daniel Pantaleo, restrained her 34-year-old son with what she contends is an illegal choke hold and what Pantaleo’s lawyer argues is an approved technique.
A long-delayed internal disciplinary trial that could lead to Pantaleo’s firing is slated to begin Monday. A ruling last week requires the police watchdog agency bringing the case to prove not only that Pantaleo violated department rules, but that his actions fit the criteria for criminal charges. Pantaleo does not actually face criminal charges.
“It has been five long years,” Carr said. “Pantaleo and all those other officers who actually murdered my son that day, they are still collecting their salaries. They still go home every day and it’s business as usual with them. But with me, we relive this every day.”
Video of the struggle on a Staten Island street corner quickly went viral, amplifying Garner’s plaintive pleas of “I can’t breathe” into a rallying cry in the face of police brutality against unarmed black men and women.
Pantaleo was placed on desk duty. Investigations were opened. The medical examiner ruled Garner’s death a homicide caused by a police choke hold. And then nothing happened.
A grand jury declined to indict Pantaleo on criminal charges. Facing a July deadline, federal prosecutors don’t appear...
