The widow of Eric Garner, killed last July by police as they were trying to subdue him with a choke hold, spoke out Wednesday evening after news broke that a grand jury had decided not to indict the officer for the man’s death.
On Wednesday evening, a New York grand jury announced that it did not have enough evidence to indict Officer Daniel Pantaleo for the July death Garner.
Speaking at a press conference arranged by MSNBC TV host Al Sharpton, Esaw Garner, Eric Garner’s wife, said that she would never accept the officer’s apology and bitterly criticized him for having taken away her husband.
“Hell, no,” said Esaw Garner said of the officer’s apology. “He’s still working, he’s still getting a paycheck, he’s still feeding his kids, and my husband is six feet under,” she added.
“He should be here celebrating Christmas and Thanksgiving and everything else with his children and grandchildren. And he can’t. Why? Because a cop did wrong,” she continued.
“Who is going to play Santa Claus for my grandkids?” Mrs. Garner asked.
Mrs. Garner also pledged to keep fighting for her husband. “This fight ain’t over. It just begun. I’m determined to get justice for my husband,” she said.
Garner’s mother-in-law, Gwen Carr, also spoke, invoking Ferguson, Missouri in her comments.
“Yeah, we want you to rally, but rally in peace,” Carr said. “Make a statement, but make it in peace. Do what you have to, but do it in peace.”
Carr went on to express her disappointment with the New York grand jury’s decision.
“I am truly disappointed in the grand jury’s decision this evening. I don’t know what video they were looking at it wasn’t the same one that the rest of the world was looking at,” she said. “How could we put our trust in the justice system when they fail us like this?”
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com