Eric’s untold story
Choke victim a devoted dad but ‘hard-luck case’: book
ERIC GARNER, a man who admittedly lived on the outskirts of society, had a head for numbers and a heart that matched his size.
His family and friends share their insights about the Staten Island man who improbably inspired a movement in a book, “I Can’t Breathe: A Killing on Bay Street.”
Garner, 43, died July 17, 2014, after NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo placed him in a banned chokehold on Staten Island.
As he struggled for his life, Garner pleaded “I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe” — the galvanizing words echoed in the Black Lives Matter protests that roiled the country. Author and journalist Matt Taibbi explores Garner the man, a tale largely lost in the controversy over his death. The Daily News obtained a copy of the book ahead of its Tuesday release date.
Garner studied sports statistics like an oddsmaker, Taibbi writes. If someone asked how many catches Giants wide receiver Amani Toomer had in 2002, he knew the answer.
If someone doubted him, he would say, “Google that s--t.” Inevitably, he’d be proved right, Taibbi writes.
To the extent he could, Garner doted on his five kids, angrily vowing he would never be a deadbeat dad.
“He’d say, ‘I take care of my kids! I’ll take care of them from a jail cell,’” his widow, Esaw, 50, tells Taibbi.
Garner had four children with his wife and one out of wedlock.
With money low, Garner turned to petty crime and drug dealing at a young age, and he stashed his illgotten cash in various hiding places. Attention from the police followed, and Garner earned his share of arrests.
His dream was to one day hold a job that enabled him to sit down at work.
Garner’s friends called him “Elephant Foot” — not only because he weighed 350 pounds, but also in recognition of his feet being swollen by diabetes. He also suffered from sleep apnea and chronic allergies and constantly needed to wipe his running nose.
Garner was more than a guy who just sold loose cigarettes, as he has been portrayed, according to Taibbi.
He made thousands of dollars from a market for out-of-state cigarettes after Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg raised taxes on smokes while they were mayors, Taibbi writes.
Garner found a way to exploit the difference between $5-a-pack Virginia smokes and the $14-apack prices in New York.
He had a network of people who would drive to Virginia for $50 each, plus expenses, and return to Staten Island with hundreds of cartons of illicit cigarettes.
Friends said Garner could calculate the price of six cigarette deals in his head at the same time, without missing a digit.
Though beloved by family and friends, Garner remained “a flawed character . . . a hard-luck case” who drew trouble like a magnet, according to Taibbi.
Taibbi also delves into details of the encounter that led to Garner’s death.
For one thing, Taibbi writes that a section of Tompkins Park — known to some as “Needle Park” — was ignored until a ritzy apartment complex called The Pointe was green-lighted.
Cops began harassing the locals for low-level crimes, setting the stage for what happened to Garner. Pantaleo, 32, and his partner, Justin D’Amico, 28, ignored a fistfight between two men before their confrontation with Garner on that tragic day, Taibbi says.
Rather than pursue the two combatants, the two cops instead ran up to Garner, he writes.
“I ain’t got nothing,” a witness quoted Garner as telling them.
Witness James Knight tells Taibbi he didn’t actually see Garner sell any cigarettes that day.
Taibbi says the cops appeared to be there to harass Garner. And Garner, this one time, did not want to move yet again. His defiance set the wheels in motion for tragedy, protest and heartbreak.
The episode was widely seen in a cell phone video that bystander Ramsey Orta recorded. The Daily News obtained exclusive rights to the video, which was then distributed widely to shock and outrage.
Salon owner Kwan Lee said that as Garner lost consciousness, a woman ran up and begged Pantaleo to get off him. Pantaleo responded by gesturing toward his gun.
Garner lay on the ground for several minutes before an ambulance arrived. EMTs tried CPR, but it was too late.
Taibbi explores the aftermath of grief, anger and protests, the political maneuvering and the failure of the criminal justice system to hold anyone accountable.
A Staten Island grand jury decided not to indict Pantaleo or any of the other responding cops. A three-year-old federal probe seems rudderless.
Taibbi quotes four people who appeared before the Staten Island grand jury investigating the case. All assert the district attorney’s office tanked the probe, with the prosecutors asking irrelevant questions when they testified.
Knight said he was not asked questions about the chokehold.
Witness Fred Winship said cops peppered him with questions about that before his testimony. But when he testified, he didn’t feel prosecutors asked the right questions.
Witness Taisha Allen claimed her testimony about whether Garner was placed in a chokehold was altered twice.
She said she was told in the grand jury she couldn’t describe what happened to Garner as a “chokehold.”
Taibbi offers a dim view of how society and the criminal justice system treated Garner, and treats blacks and Hispanics in general.
“The lengths we went to as a society to crush someone of such modest ambition were awesome to contemplate,” he writes.