As you may recall, Eric Garner was a 43-year-old Black man who was killed by police officers after being placed in a fatal chokehold back in 2014. The father repeatedly pleaded with the officers and repeated the words "I can't breathe," before later dying of asphyxiation. His death added to the slew of killings of unarmed Black & Brown hands at the hands of police. As such, his passing fueled the outcries of the Black Lives Matter movement and sparked riots and vigils which called for better treatment of minorities when placed under police care. Despite the police officer involved still pending charges with ongoing legal proceedings, many are still hoping that justice will someday be served. Yet, in the thick of a disciplinary hearing, new reports are indicating that the union lawyers representing of the police officer involved in the aforementioned case have made some pretty foul claims with regards to Eric Garner's cause of death.
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It has already been confirmed that Garner died of asphyxiation when the chokehold compressed his throat and chest which then triggered a fatal asthmatic attack. However, recent reports by the Washington Post confirm that NYPD union lawyers strongly believe that Garner's poor health was the true cause of death and not the chokehold initiated by officer Daniel Pantaleo. Pantaleo's attorney further claims that Garner died because he was "morbidly obese" and called the late father a "ticking time bomb that resisted arrest."
We expect more details on this later.