One week after violence in Ferguson, New York is anxiously bracing for a separate grand jury decision in another racially charged case involving a white police officer and the death of an African-American.
Eric Garner, a 43-year-old father-of-six, died after being placed in a chokehold by New York Police Department officer Daniel Pantaleo while being arrested on suspicion of selling , untaxed cigarettes in Staten Island on July 17.
Cellphone footage of the confrontation showed Garner, who has asthma, complaining “I can´t breathe” after being bundled onto the ground by several police officers before falling unconscious.
Garner was declared dead at a local hospital. A New York medical examiner ruled the death a homicide caused in part by the chokehold used during the arrest.
A grand jury in New York has been hearing evidence in the Garner case since September and reportedly heard from its final witness last week.
A decision over whether or not to charge the officers involved could be imminent, according to local media reports.
New York authorities are preparing to deal with an outbreak of the sort of violence which erupted in Ferguson, Missouri last week after a grand jury decided not to charge a white police officer over the shooting of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown.
