#MixxNews: No Indictment for Staten Island Cop in Eric Garner Death

A New York City grand jury decision not to charge a white police officer who killed unarmed, African-American, 43-year-old father of six,  Eric Garner, with a chokehold sparked outrage and protests on Wednesday, and the U.S. Justice Department said it would investigate the incident.

Garner was illegally selling cigarettes on July 17 when Staten Island police officers tackled him and put him in a chokehold. Police said he was resisting arrest. The city’s medical examiner ruled the death a homicide. The deadly encounter  was captured on video, which quickly spread over the Internet and fueled debate about how U.S. police use force, particularly against minorities.

Hours after the Daily News was the first to inform Esaw Garner, widow of Eric Garner, of the grand jury’s decision not to indict Officer Daniel Pantaleo, she clearly wanted no part of the cop.

“The time for remorse was when my husband was yelling to breathe,” she said, referring to Eric Garner’s last words. “That would have been the time for him to show some remorse or some type of care for another human being’s life.”

After Pantaleo was cleared by the Staten Island grand jury, the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association released a statement on the cop’s behalf.

“I hope that they will accept my personal condolences for their loss,” he said.

Esaw Garner shouted words of repulse when asked if she accepted words of condolence from the cop who killed her husband with a chokehold: “Hell no!”  She sent a clear message to how she felt.

“No, I don’t accept his apology,” she said Wednesday night at the Harlem headquarters of the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network. “I could care less about his condolences. My husband is 6 feet under. (The cop) is still working. He’s still collecting a paycheck and I’m looking for a way to feed my kids.”

After returning home from the press conference, the widow compared her husband’s death “to a modern day lynching.” And she had words for the grand jury’s decision,

“They had to get 12 to agree and they probably got 12 white motherf—–s to say no.”

Hours earlier, she told The News the disturbing video of her husband in the clutches of a fatal police chokehold should have been enough for an indictment.

“I’m very disappointed,” she said, her voice rising with shock and anger. “You can see in the video that (the cop) was dead wrong!”

The doomed dad could be heard in the video saying 11 times, “I can’t breathe.” Garner’s 19-year-old son, Eric Snipes, also chimed in, calling the decision “insane.”

“The grand jury needs to come talk to me and tell me why.”