Wiseguy: I’ll die before 8 years in jail
THE DAUGHTER of police chokehold victim Eric Garner is near death but still showing her fighting spirit after a massive heart attack nearly a week ago, family members told the Daily News Thursday.
Relatives and friends rushed to Woodhull Hospital to visit Erica Garner, who became an outspoken critic of police brutality after her father’s death in 2013.
The 27-year-old firebrand remained in grave condition on life support Thursday, her mother Esaw Snipes said.
“She’s not gone, she’s brain dead,” Garner’s heartbroken mother explained. “Physically she is still with us.”
Snipes said her family was clinging to “a glimpse of hope.”
“She’s still here with us. She just needs some time to heal, that’s it.
“We just ask that y’all give her time to heal,” she said. “Keep praying for her.”
Other visitors claimed Garner was showing a minimal amount of brain activity in recent scans.
“We are just praying for a miracle,” said the Rev. Al Sharpton. “(Erica) was a warrior. She was a real activist, she was always involved. From three years ago, she never stopped. She was always at rallies, she was always calling me, ‘Reverend, we’ll do this. Reverend, we’ll do that. We’ll do it your way, then I’m gonna do it different than you.’
“It’s just sad to see her laying there and not the active Erica that we know,” Sharpton said.
Garner has been in a coma since Saturday, when an asthma attack triggered a heart attack.
The person running her popular Twitter account told Garner’s 35,000 followers Wednesday that a CT scan revealed that she had suffered brain damage “from lack of oxygen while in cardiac arrest.”
The account refuted a “rest in peace” message from Brooklyn City Councilman Jumaane Williams, who prematurely reported her death. “As we sent prayers up . . . so sorry to hear the news. RIP @es_snipes. That family still needs us #Garner,” Williams tweeted. In a later statement, the councilman said he “hastily tweeted out erroneous information.” “I reacted immediately and emotionally to this unverified information, and in my desire to give heartfelt condolences to a family I know and have immense regard for, responded in public without confirming that information,” Williams said. “I apologize for any additional strain this may have put on a family who already knows heartbreak all too well and whose pain I cannot imagine right now.”
Eric Garner’s pleas of “I can’t breathe!” as he was put into a chokehold by Police Officer Daniel Pantaleo — a move the NYPD banned — helped spark the Black Lives Matter movement and spurred his daughter to become an advocate against police brutality.
When her son was born in August, she named him after her father.
Garner suffered her first heart attack shortly after the delivery, with doctors saying the pregnancy stressed her already enlarged heart. AN ELDERLY gangster’s road rage could cost him the rest of his life.
Vincent Asaro (photo above) received an eight-year sentence Thursday for ordering the burning of a car that cut him off — and the 82-year-old says the hard time is a “death sentence.”
It was a dramatic finish in Brooklyn Federal Court for the Bonanno capo, who was banished to prison with his family watching.
Two years ago, prosecutors came at Asaro with charges that he participated in a 1969 murder and the notorious 1978 Lufthansa Airlines heist immortalized in the movie “Goodfellas.”
That trial ended with a stunning acquittal.
Earlier this year, prosecutors filed new charges saying that in 2012, an enraged Asaro made underlings track down a car that had cut him off and light it on fire.
Asaro pleaded guilty in June and apologized Thursday for the “stupid thing I did.” Prosecutors urged at least 15 years for the octogenarian with a life of crime.
“This defendant has never been held accountable for his actions,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Lindsay Gerdes said.
But the defense claims authorities were out for revenge on an aging man in failing health.
Elizabeth Macedonio said prosecutors wanted the judge to take the criminal justice system and “turn it on its head.”
“I have no illusions that Mr. Asaro will be rehabilitated by a prison stint,” said Judge Allyne Ross.
Asaro asked be shipped to a New Jersey or Connecticut prison so he could be close to his family.
“I don’t care what happens to me at this point, your honor,” Asaro said. “What you sentenced me to is a death sentence.”