I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe
The tragic words of 43 year old father of six, Eric Garner. A video originally obtained by The New York Daily news shows Staten Island Police first approach Garner and talk to him about selling a cigarettes to someone. Garner can be seen in frustrated manner repeating that he didn’t do anything,
“everybody’s standing here, i didn’t do NOTHING, every time you see me you want to harrass me , you want to stop me.. i’m minding my business officer, please just leave me a long, i told you the last time please just leave me alone”
A later portion of the video shows Garner repeatedly saying please don’t touch me, then being put into a head lock by one officer, and then slammed to the ground. He can be heard then repeatedly saying “I can’t breath , I can’t breathe” in a garbled manner.
Garner, who suffered from Asthma reportedly had a heart attack at the scene, and then later died at a local hospital.
Later in the clip the same officer who choked Garner can be seen telling the camera “this had nothing to do with the fight, this had something to do with something else,”. But witnesses seem to disagree.
Ramsey Orta the 22 year old who shot the footage said that police approached Garner shortly after he had broke up a fight outside the store. Another woman at the scene of the crime explained how Garner broke up a fight while police watched, then saw one of the people in the fight walk away, the police then approached the 400 lb Garner.
The family of Ganer are saying that although he has been arrested numerous time including arrests for selling untaxed cigarettes, he had no cigarettes on him or in his car at the time of the “arrest”.
An internal affairs investigation is already ongoing.
All images and orignal video via The New York Daily News
We’ll keep you updated.
