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Eric Garner's mother says she was let down by Mayor De Blasio's response to question about c
Gwen Carr, the mother of Eric Garner, addresses a City Hall rally calling for police accountability on June 17, the fourth anniversary of her son's death. (Jefferson Siegel / New York Daily News)
The mother of Eric Garner gave Mayor de Blasio a thumbs down Thursday for his answer on whether he would push for charges against all the officers involved in her son’s death.
“It was a long answer that he gave me, but it was incomplete,” Gwen Carr said. “It said nothing about what I asked about holding all of the others accountable.”
Carr weighed in a day after she confronted the mayor at a town hall event in Staten Island. De Blasio reiterated to Carr that two officers were hit with departmental charges in the July 2014 death of Garner, 43.
“That is the decision that came out of a previous review of the situation and I know you disagree with that, but I want to be straightforward,” de Blasio said.
Officer Daniel Pantaleo, the cop blamed in Garner’s death, has been hit with departmental charges for violating NYPD regulations against using a chokehold to subdue a suspect.
His supervisor, Sgt. Kizzy Adonis, is facing internal charges of failing to properly oversee her officers.
No timetable was announced for the disciplinary proceedings.
If found guilty, Pantaleo and Adonis would face penalties from a simple loss of vacation days to dismissal.
The NYPD announced it was moving forward with disciplinary proceedings four years after Garner died in a police encounter that set off waves of protests in the city and across the nation.
“I can’t breathe,” Garner declared 11 times before collapsing on a sidewalk.
A Staten Island grand jury declined to indict Pantaleo but he could still face federal criminal charges. The Justice Department probe has dragged on for years.
The NYPD had been waiting for the federal investigation to end before bringing departmental charges. But the police reversed course earlier this month, telling the Justice Department it would no longer hold off on disciplinary proceedings if the feds had not announced by Aug. 31 whether it will file criminal charges.
“It’s been a nightmare,” Carr said. “I’ve been waiting four years for someone come to me and tell me what is going to happen. There’s nothing. So now we got a little bit and we’re going a little forward and we’re going to see what happens with the process.”
Courtesy of Daily News
