It was the day that Gwen Carr had long dreamed about yet dreaded.
The mother of NYPD chokehold victim Eric Garner uncomfortably shared a courtroom Thursday with his accused killer as a departmental trial date was finally set in her son’s polarizing 2014 death.
“It was mixed emotions,” Carr said after the One Police Plaza hearing. “I felt sort of numb being in the room with my son’s murderer.”
The Civilian Complaint Review Board’s Administrative Prosecution Unit announced a May 13 opening in the contentious case that launched national protests after Garner, 43, died while gasping “I can’t breathe” on a Staten Island sidewalk.
Accused Officer Daniel Pantaleo slipped in and out of the crowded hearing without saying a word. He’s facing NYPD charges for using a banned chokehold. A 10-day trial is expected, with each side calling about 13 witnesses.
Police union head Patrick Lynch joined Carr and Pantaleo as both sides called for an end to the probe as the fifth anniversary of Garner’s death looms this coming July.
“This case has been pending for more than four years, and the family deserves closure, as does Officer Pantaleo,” said his attorney Stu London.
Carr expressed similar feelings: “You know the family is in pain. It’s been 4½ years with no justice.”
The PBA released a statement asserting the Garner autopsy, previously unavailable to Pantaleo’s defense team, would prove the officer’s innocence. The results indicate that the cause of death was not strangulation of the neck from a chokehold, the union said.
But the city medical examiner disputed the PBA’s conclusion, announcing it stood by the original finding that Garner died from injuries “including neck compression.”
Panteleo was kept sequestered in a room off the courtroom before the hearing, entering quietly in a dark suit and flanked by members of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association. He bolted immediately afterward, leaving without any comment.