NYC To Pay Eric Garner’s Family $5.9 M To Settle Chokehold Death Claim

Source: STAN HONDA/AFP/Getty / Getty

Perhaps it’s not the justice hoped many for, but it’s at least a resolution: The New York Times is reporting that the City of New York has agreed to pay the family of Eric Garner $5.9 million to settle a claim over his killing in New York City’s Staten Island borough one year ago on Friday.
From the NYT:
The agreement, reached days before the deadline to file suit in the death, appeared to be among the biggest reached so far as part of a strategy by the city comptroller, Scott M. Stringer, to settle major civil rights claims even before a lawsuit is filed. Mr. Stringer has said the aim is to save taxpayers the expense of a drawn-out trial and to give those bringing the suits and their families a measure of closure.
Last year, Mr. Garner’s relatives, including his widow, Esaw Garner, and with his mother, Gwen Carr, filed a notice of claim — a procedural step that must precede a lawsuit against the city — seeking $75 million in damages. Mr. Garner died on July 17 after a police officer, Daniel Pantaleo, placed him in a chokehold during an arrest as other officers wrestled him to the ground. The confrontation was captured in a cellphone video taken by a bystander.
As reported, the medical examiner ruled Garner’s death a homicide, but a grand jury did not indict Pantaleo in his death.