New York Daily News – by CORINNE LESTCH , ROCCO PARASCANDOLA , LARRY MCSHANE
A defenseless dad, lying handcuffed and unresponsive on a sidewalk, received zero medical help from cops who instead just emptied his pockets, a shocking new video shows.
The seven-minute clip posted Saturday on YouTube shows an apparently lifeless Eric Garner, whose head droops to the side as at least eight cops stand nearby.
“C’mon, guy,” one cop says to Garner, the only thing on the video that suggests any of the officers was trying to help the Staten Island man. “Breathe in, breathe out.”
But Garner, on his side with his eyes closed, doesn’t move at all — even when the officer slaps him on the shoulder. The side of his head remains flat against the concrete, and his eyes never open.
At one point, another officer is seen taking a cell phone and a pack of cigarettes from the 43-year-old Garner’s pants.
Even after the arrival of an EMT four minutes into the video, no medical aid is provided to Garner. He’s instead just loaded onto a stretcher and wheeled off.
Cops say he was pronounced dead a short time later after arriving at a Staten Island hospital.
NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo, caught on another video putting Garner in a chokehold, is shown standing a few feet away and chatting amiably with a uniformed colleague.
Near the end of the clip, he gives a satiric wave to the person shooting the second video.
Pantaleo, an eight-year veteran, was placed on modified duty Saturday as cops and the Staten Island district attorney investigated the case.
Pantaleo was stripped of his gun and his shield and assigned to work desk duty. The police union immediately denounced the move as “knee-jerk” and “completely unwarranted.”
But detectives arrived at his Staten Island home Saturday afternoon, leaving about 25 minutes later with one box and three bags taken from the residence.
Officer Justin Damico, on the force four years, was also pulled off the street — but he was not forced to turn in his badge or his weapon.
Outside Damico’s home Saturday, an infuriated woman screamed at reporters.
“Get off my f—— property! F—— retards!” she howled. “One picture of me and I’ll sue you!”
Sources told the Daily News there were no signs of neck trauma, such as a crushed windpipe, on the heavyset victim.
“There’s no indication this is death by strangulation or asphyxia,” the source said.
Another source said the likely cause of death will be a heart attack, although other actions — including the illegal takedown of Garner — “will probably go down as contributing factors.”
The city’s medical examiner would not confirm the preliminary findings.
Either way, Police Commissioner Bill Bratton was irate after getting a look at a video from the Thursday afternoon tragedy near the Staten Island ferry terminal, another source said.
The investigation will determine in part whether the cops were justified in their decision to jump Garner — and one source indicated they were not.
NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo was stripped of his shield and gun, and placed on modified duty Saturday.“Tactically, very little was done right,” the source said. “The first two cops (Pantaleo and Damico) didn’t engage Garner … They appear to know him. Do something to put him at ease.”
A sergeant caught standing nearby in the video could be nailed for “failure to supervise,” the source said.
Garner’s devastated wife, Esaw, collapsed in the arms of her family with a piercing wail Saturday at a Harlem rally organized by the Rev. Al Sharpton.
“Oh my God!” she shouted before tumbling.
The widow, along with Garner’s mother, daughter, and sister, sobbed loudly as Sharpton demanded justice for the family and the late father of six.
“There is no justification at all on this chokehold,” he said. “And there is clearly no reason, when a man is saying, ‘I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe,’ that you maintain this chokehold.”
Mayor de Blasio spoke on the phone with Esaw Garner and the dead man’s mother, Gwen Carr, a spokeswoman said.
“Mayor de Blasio called Mr. Garner’s wife and mother (Saturday) morning to offer his condolences,” said de Blasio spokeswoman Marti Adams. “He reassured the family that the city is doing everything possible to ensure a full and thorough investigation.”
A funeral for Garner was set for Wednesday at Bethel Baptist Church in Brooklyn.
The first video, obtained by the Daily News, captured Garner complaining that he couldn’t breathe as Pantaleo applies the chokehold and other cops take him to the ground.
Cops were investigating whether Garner was illegally selling “loosies” — untaxed single cigarettes. He had three full packs of cigarettes and one opened pack of untaxed smokes when police approached him.
At a Staten Island rally attended by about 500 people Saturday afternoon, Garner’s sister said the minor transgression hardly justified the police response.
“Many people that own stores sell illegal cigarettes,” said Ellisha Flagg. “They lose their license, not their lives.”
Garner’s rap sheet includes 31 arrests dating to his first at age 16, cops said.
With Danielle Schlanger, Alfred Ng, Chelsia Rose Marcius and Thomas Tracy
Why would they help him? The did their best to kill the guy.
This might be a shocker to the idiots who read the NY Daily News, but anyone with half a brain in their head has seen through the “protect and serve” myth long ago.
Watch the THOUSANDS videos of cops beating, running over clubbing or shooting anyone, EVEN the “Boston Bombing” that are on Youtube. Look at the cops as the person, man or woman, dies for lack of imediate care. In the Boston Bombing you have excellent PRIVATE video from above looking down. Notice how NONE of the cops bend a leg or move to help in any way. This is a trained and ordered action. It is also part of the Royalty agenda. They are far more important than you are and they need not “dirty their royal hands” in assisting you. Oh, but they are good at going through you pockets and making property and cash “disappear”. War is coming. BUY MORE AMMO. It is the only thing that is going to fix this. Liberty1775
The Boston ‘bombing’ is a bad example, Mark. The reason they did nothing to help is because no one truly needed any help (that’s not to say they would have helped had it been legitimate), being that it was just another poorly scripted ‘production’, like Sandy Hoax, where NO ONE actually died.
As far as I know, the only casualty of the Boston ‘bombing’ was the patsy they pinned it on.
Make that ONE of the patsies they pinned it on.
Shotgun blasts to the heads of every one of these murdering scumbags would go a long way towards serving justice.