Eric Garner Death By NYPD Chokehold: Second Video Showing EMT’s Not Helping Man Raises More Questions [WATCH]
Another shocking video has surfaced on the death of Eric Garner, which continues to spark outrage in his Staten Island community and beyond. Footage captured right after New York City police put him in a chokehold against the ground Thursday, which reportedly led to his death, shows emergency medical technicians ignoring the 43-year-old man dying on the ground and failing to give any aid.
ABC 7 in New York reported that the four EMTs who work for Richmond University Medical Center are suspended without pay as the Staten Island hospital conducts an investigation.
The New York Post posted the video of Garner on the sidewalk lifeless as police, who had previously slammed him to the ground and put him in a chokehold, stood around. The 7-minute video shows several NYPD officers crouched around Garner, who is handcuffed and not moving. One officer suggested they should call an ambulance, but instead, the team of police searched his pockets.
About four minutes into the video, EMS workers arrived but provided little emergency aid to Garner. One female worker, whom the Post named as Nicole Palmeri, checked Garner’s pulse before she walked away and left the man with police. The camera panned to other officers, who continued to stand around and stare at a lifeless Garner.
Eventually, the police helped the EMS workers lift Garner and toss him onto a stretcher, where he was taken to Richmond University Medical Center and pronounced dead on arrival.
“We’re gonna try to get him up on the stretcher,” one officer said in the video. “It’s gonna take like six of us.”
“Why’d nobody do no CPR?” a person off camera asks.
“No one did nothing,” another person responds. An officer retorted: “He’s breathing.”
The Post noted that none of the EMS workers had the required equipment like an oxygen bag or a defibrillator on the scene. Instead, they should have immediately placed Garner on a stretcher, checked his airway, breathing and circulation and hooked up an oxygen mask.
“It was pretty obvious this patient was in distress,” a source told the Post. “His body was limp and lifeless.”
"The ambulance was right down the block, but the police said 'not yet,'" witness and registered nurse Giordio Dano told ABC 7.
Garner, who suffered from asthma, reportedly died of cardiac arrest on the way to the hospital.
The story of Eric Garner’s death went viral last week after video showed the man being put in a chokehold by a police officer in plain clothes and then slammed on the ground. Garner was being arrested, according to authorities, for selling untaxed cigarettes — an offense he had been arrested for previously.
"Every time you see me, you want to mess with me. I'm tired of it. It stops today," Garner said. "I'm minding my business. Please just leave me alone."
In the footage, Garner told police that he could not breathe after being cuffed and taken to the ground.
“I can't breathe, I can't breathe!" Garner screamed six times and then went quiet.
“They jumped him and they were choking him. He was foaming at the mouth,” Ramsey Orta, 22, who recorded the video, told The New York Daily News. “And that’s it, he was done. The cops were saying, ‘No, he’s OK, he’s OK.” He wasn’t OK.”
Police said Garner "took a fighting stance" and "absolutely resisted arrest."
According to the Post, the undercover officer who put Garner in the chokehold, Daniel Pantaleo, was stripped of his badge and weapon because using the tactic violates NYPD procedure. Pantaleo, an eight-year veteran on the force, was placed on "modified assignment” and will be investigated by the district attorney and internal affairs.
A funeral for Eric Garner will be held Wednesday at Bethel Baptist Church in Brooklyn.
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