The Story Surrounding the Death of Eric Garner During an Arrest Attempt by NYPD

Police take to the ground Eric Garner for allegedly selling untaxed, loose cigarettes.

But according to CBS New York, Ramsey Orta, the man who shot the video, said police were not arresting him for that offense at all:

“Plain and simple, the police were harassing an innocent man,” Orta said.

Orta insisted police were busting Garner because of a long prior relationship based on previous incidents, and no because of anything he was doing last Friday.

He said Garner had actually just arrived to the scene to break up a fight between strangers when police arrived.

“He intervened and broke up the fight, and that’s when the cops pulled up, let the two guys walk away and kept their attention toward him,” Orta said.

At the time of his arrest, Garner told the officers who confronted him that he had not done anything wrong, according to the video of the arrest.

“Every time you see me, you want to mess with me. I’m tired of it. It stops today,” Garner shouts. “I’m minding my business. Please just leave me alone.”

And what about emergency first responders that politicians love to praise? Here's what:

The medics were reassigned after a second video surfaced showing at least a half-dozen police officers and emergency workers circling a man who appears to be Garner lying on the sidewalk, handcuffed and unresponsive.

“It’s crazy, and I was like, ‘Perform CPR on him,’ and they was like, ‘He don’t need CPR,’” said Taisha Allen, who pulled out her phone to record the incident. “He was not breathing at the time.”

But officers said Garner was breathing.

“I think they did not do their job,” said Angela Ramos of the Tompkinsville neighborhood where the incident happened, “and that they need to be retrained.”

EMTs can then be seen in the video briefly checking Garner’s condition and putting him on a gurney to take him to the hospital.

-RW