Marking 10 years since Eric Garner's death at the hands of NYC police
STATEN ISLAND (WABC) -- It's been 10 years since the death of Eric Garner who was killed in his Staten Island community by police in 2014.
A viral video captured his final breaths at the hands of police, which shook the city and launched nationwide protests calling for accountability and an outcry against police brutality.
Eyewitness News' Phil Taitt sat down with Garner's 29-year-old son and Garner's mother to look back on the past decade.
Eric Garner Jr, Garner's son, said when he runs up and down the basketball court on Staten Island where he learned how to play the game with his dad, the memories come bouncing back.
"He taught me how to dribble, shoot, jump off the left leg when I'm shooting the right-hand layup," Garner Jr. said.
Garner Jr. signed a full scholarship to Essex County College with his dad by his side.
When asked what's been the biggest sense of loss since his father's passing, Garner Jr. said "Father's Day."
Garner died on July 17, 2014 after gasping for air when he was heard saying "I can't breathe," several times after he was put in an illegal chokehold by police.
He had been stopped by cops for allegedly selling illegal loose cigarettes.
The officer who applied the unauthorized chokehold was Daniel Pantaleo.
"10 years later, I'm not angry at the police," Garner Jr. said. "I'm angry at Daniel Pantaleo because he didn't have to choke my pops out on a corner like that."
Garner's dying words became a rallying cry and sparked protests around the world, demanding justice and police accountability.
His death was ruled a homicide, but a grand jury refused to indict Pantaleo and anyone else who was at the scene.
Five years later, Pantaleo was kicked off the police force.
Commissioner James O'Neill said, "It is clear Daniel Pantaleo can no longer effectively serve as a police officer."
For the past 10 years, Garner's mother, Gwen Carr, has been turning her anger into action.
Her life-long mission is now committed to police reform.
At the top of her list was banning police chokeholds.
"It only banned chokeholds in New York State. We need a nationwide law that says you cannot choke a person to death. You cannot obstruct their breathing," Carr said.
Her son's death pushed a national conversation and created change, in large part because of Carr.
The New York attorney general can now prosecute police-related deaths of unarmed civilians.
Carr's mission also has her questioning other controversial police protections like qualified immunity.
"If we could get rid of that qualified immunity, I think we would have a better police force," Carr said.
Qualified immunity shields public officials from liability for misconduct, even when they've broken the law.
There's a long list of people who have died at the hands of police, one of them George Floyd, who said the same dying words of Eric Garner six years later.
"We see that these murders, these innocent victims, murdered by the police, is still happening. There were several right after my son's death. And then going forward there were many more," Carr said.
Carr said July 17, 2014 feels like yesterday for a mother who lost a son. And for a son who lost a father, Garner Jr. knows his father's death can still have meaning.
"Take that video that went viral. Use it as inspiration on to like, the people that's coming up as officers. Like that is what you don't do. Just as what you can't do. This is just not right," Garner Jr. said.
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