Written By:nydailynews
The 43-year-old dad died July 17 after cops on Staten Island attempted to arrest him for selling untaxed cigarettes. ‘Thank God the truth is finally out,’ the man’s widow said Friday after the report was unveiled.
Eric Garner’s death by chokehold was a homicide.
The Staten Island man who collapsed after being placed in the banned restraint by a police officer died from compression of the neck and chest, the New York City Medical Examiner ruled Friday.
The 43-year-old victim’s asthma, obesity and high blood pressure were also contributing factors in his death, the autopsy determined.
It was the latest development in a case that sparked national outrage after The Daily News obtained video showing Officer Daniel Pantaleo putting Garner in the chokehold.
Garner’s widow said she was relieved that the ME confirmed what had been suspected for weeks.
“Thank God the truth is finally out,” Esaw Garner told The Daily News. “Thank God for that.”
Garner was black. Pantaleo is white. And the incident has roiled relations between the police and minority residents on Staten Island.
Mayor de Blasio, who was elected on a promise to make the NYPD more responsive to minority communities, said he was “absolutely committed to ensuring that the proper reforms are enacted to ensure that this won’t happen again.”
“We all have a responsibility to work together to heal the wounds from decades of mistrust and create a culture where the police department and the communities they protect respect each other,” he said in a statement.
The Rev. Al Sharpton, who a day earlier pointedly told the mayor his biracial son could be “a candidate for a chokehold,” held his fire at the ME’s announcement.
“We’re reviewing it and we’ll be announcing tomorrow what course of action we’ll be taking after we meet tonight,” he told The News