New York City Just Settled with the Family of Eric Garner for $5.9 Million

The family of Eric Garner, the Staten Island father of six who died after New York City Police Officer Daniel Pantaleo subdued him with a chokehold last July, is being awarded a $5.9 million wrongful death settlement from New York City. The family had reportedly given the city until Friday—the one-year anniversary of Garner's death—to negotiate before they took their $75 million lawsuit against the NYPD and the city to court.

In a statement late Monday, New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer—who's empowered to settle claims against NYC before they turn into lawsuits—acknowledged the impact of Garner's death on the city, but stopped short of apologizing for wrongdoing.

"[Garner's death] forced us to examine the state of race relations, and the relationship between our police force and the people they serve," Stringer said, adding that "While… the City has not admitted liability, I believe that we have reached an agreement that acknowledges the tragic nature of Mr. Garner's death while balancing my office's fiscal responsibility to the City."

Earlier Monday, the New York Daily News had reported that Garner's widow, Esaw Garner, had rejected a $5 million settlement against the advice of the family's attorney, Jonathan Moore, who suggested they accept the offer and then sue the EMTs who failed to offer Garner medical treatment. But after the city's settlement was announced Monday night, the New York Times reported that the Garner family attorney had reached a separate settlement—the amount remains confidential—with Richmond University Medical Center, the hospital that dispatched the medical workers, before a lawsuit was filed.

But even if the Garners have accepted the $5.9 settlement, they aren't finished fighting police brutality.

"They want to make clear that the money does not in any way interfere with their pursuit of justice," Al Sharpton told the Daily News. "We won't be happy until there's a conclusion and strategic changes in the NYPD and the way the Justice Department handles these cases."

In a statement, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio acknowledged that cash alone cannot reimburse human loss.

"No sum of money can make this family whole, but hopefully the Garner family can find some peace and finality from today's settlement," de Blasio said. "By reaching a resolution, family and other loved ones can move forward even though we know they will never forget this tragic incident."

Similarly, Stringer told the Times, "Financial compensation is certainly not everything, and it can't bring Mr. Garner back. But it is our way of creating balance and giving a family a certain closure."

The Daily News reports that $5.9 million is the largest wrongful death settlement related to a police officer–involved killing in the city's history. The payout represents the family's official compensation since a grand jury declined to indict the officers who subdued Garner in December. Several months previously, the city medical examiner's office had declared his death a homicide, citing his weight and "the compression of his chest and prone positioning during physical restraint by police."

Video of Garner's interaction with police went viral, and appeared to so clearly depict police brutality that even law-and-order conservatives Fox News' Bill O'Reilly and former US President George W. Bush expressed discomfort with the grand jury's non-indictment. In the clip filmed by neighborhood man Ramsey Orta, Garner—who was approached by police for allegedly selling loose cigarettes—accuses officers of harassment, declaring, "This ends today." Subsequently, Officer Pantaleo applies the notorious chokehold that apparently ended the man's life. With officers surrounding him and pushing his head down towards the cement, Garner desperately pleads, "I can't breathe"—words that continue to serve as a rallying cry nationwide—11 times before apparently losing consciousness, and then lies on the sidewalk for at least a few minutes without medical attention.

Though jurors did not indict Pantaleo—who remains on modified desk duty—the city and much of the country responded with calls for reform. In a speech following the jury's decision, Mayor de Blasio said, "Anyone who believes in the values of this country should feel called to action right now."

Indeed, in signs they carried and chants they shouted, demonstrators with the burgeoning Black Lives Matter movement carried Garner's words "I can't breathe!" across New York. His death became such a high-profile example of police killings of unarmed black men—and more broadly of the tension between police and black communities—that the incident made its way all the way up to the White House. President Barack Obama, who gave a speech on the day of the non-indictment, suggested at the time that the case "speaks to the larger issues that we've been talking about now for the last week, the last month, but last year and sadly for decades."

The Garner family is expected to host a press conference at Sharpton's National Action Network offices Tuesday morning, and a rally to call for justice for victims of police killings and for federal charges against the officers involved in Garner's death is planned for Saturday. A probe into the killing by the federal Department of Justice is ongoing.

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