UPDATE: As of late today (7/13/15) The City of New York has settled with the family of Eric Garner for $5.9 million. City comptroller Scott Stringer said “Mr. Garner’s death is a touchstone in our city’s history and in the history of the entire nation. 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.”
Original Post:
The tragic death of Eric Garner at the hands of the NYPD was the source of worldwide outrage. But few suffered more from his loss than Garner’s widow, Esaw Garner. Now comes word from an unnamed source that NY Controller Scott Stringer offered Garner’s widow a $5 million settlement over her husband’s death.
This amount of money would be one of the largest payout in the history of an NYPD-related death. However, so far Garner has said no to the offer against her lawyer’s advice. According to the unnamed source, family attorney Jonathan Moore has urged the family to take the $5 million and also sue the EMTs who failed to render aid to Eric Garner as he lay dying.
Because of the statute of limitations on wrongful death lawsuits, the family has until this Friday to reach a settlement agreement with the city of New York. Esaw Garner is very angry and disgusted with the judicial process that failed to indict NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo in her husband’s death. Last week she stated to the media, “It seems like because they didn’t prosecute the officers on Staten Island, all the other officers were like, hell, we’ll get away with it; let’s just do it again.”
