Metro

De Blasio phones in condolences after NYPD chokehold death

Mayor DeBlasio phoned in his condolences Saturday to grieving relatives of a Staten Island man who died after he was put in a chokehold by cops.

The mayor “reassured the family that the city is doing everything possible to ensure a full and thorough investigation,” spokeswoman Marti Adams said.

Distraught relatives of Eric Garner were in the Rev. Al Sharpton’s office when they spoke to the mayor, but declined to reveal what was said.

“They shouldn’t have did this to my son,” Garner’s mother, Gwen Carr, said. “My son never [hurt] a soul. Never.”

Garner had a long rap sheet for selling untaxed cigarettes from his perch on Bay Street in Tompkinsville, and cops claim he was doing just that when they approached him Thursday.

But witnesses insisted Garner wasn’t doing anything illegal before the fatal encounter, in which cops broke department protocol by putting the 350-pound, 43-year-old man in a chokehold.

Eric Garner

“More than anything else, we just want justice,” Carr said.

Garner’s wife, Esaw Garner, broke down in tears and had to be carried off stage during Sharpton’s weekly National Action Network meeting, where the activist warned that Garner’s death is “a real test to see where policies are in the city now, and whether the change we feel has occurred, has occurred.”

“They will try to scandalize the deceased,” Sharpton said. “The issue is not whether one was selling cigarettes, the issue is how an unarmed man was subjected to a chokehold and the result is he is no longer with us.”

Sharpton’s group will pay for Garner’s funeral, scheduled for Wednesday night in Brooklyn.

A videotape of the fatal encounter shows an irate Garner protesting his innocence before one of two police officers at the scene wraps a beefy arm around the unarmed man’s neck from behind and brings him to the ground.

New York Police Commissioner William Bratton (left) prepares to speak to the media at a news conference to address Garner’s death.(Left) Getty Images

Then several officers move in to restrain and cuff the prone Garner, who is heard calling out, “I can’t breathe!” before going limp.
The Staten Island District Attorney’s Office is investigating. Police Officers Daniel Pantaleo and Justin Damico were put on desk duty after the incident.

Sources say the cops have not yet been officially questioned but that they were part of a precinct conditions unit and observed Garner selling smokes on the street.

He has been arrested at least eight times for selling unstamped cigarettes, sources said, and was know to hawk “loosies” for 50 cents apiece.

Witnesses told The Post Garner was not peddling smokes and had tried to break up a fight between two people who ran off before cops arrived.

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

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

DeBlasio delayed by one day a planned family vacation to Italy because of Garner’s death.