Metro
video

Man dies after suffering heart attack during arrest

An obese man died of a heart ­attack Thursday after he was tackled by police officers on Staten ­Island, cops and witnesses said.

Eric Garner, 43, who weighed about 350 pounds, had been selling untaxed cigarettes on the street in Tompkinsville at around 5 p.m. when he was approached by officers and resisted arrest, ­according to police.

But multiple civilian witnesses said Garner had not been selling cigarettes, and instead had been trying to break up a fight between two people who fled before officers arrived.

“Why you touching me? I didn’t sell anything. I was breaking up a fight,” Garner shouted, according to witnesses.

Observers said the incident ­escalated quickly.

“They ran up on him and got rough right away. He wasn’t fighting back,” said Gordon Benson, 33.

More than five cops knocked Garner to the ground, witnesses said.

“When he was on the ground, they kept holding him by the neck,” Benson said.

“He just gasped and then stopped moving. They threw him on a gurney and took him away.”

Police said Garner had more than 30 arrests.