Eric Garner case: Video of chokehold's aftermath raises new questions

Another Eric Garner video raises new questions

NEW YORK -- Much of the outrage surrounding the NYPD chokehold case focuses on the video of the takedown during Eric Garner's July 17 arrest.

But there's another tape showing what happened after Garner was already on the ground -- and it's leading to more troubling questions.

Garner said the words "I can't breathe" several times before he stopped talking. A second eyewitness video -- nearly eight minutes long -- shows what happened from that point on.

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You can see police prop Garner up on his right side, which officers say they did to help him breathe.

"Guys, clear the sidewalk... EMS is coming down the sidewalk," an officer says on the tape.

What you don't see is any apparent urgency on the part of the police, even though Garner would die less than an hour later.

"Sir, EMS is here, okay?" an officer tells Garner. "Answer their questions, okay?" A bystander says, "He can't breathe."

It's more than four minutes into the video before an EMS worker arrives and checks Garner's wrist for a pulse. She then checks his neck.

"Sir, we're here to help, come on," the EMS worker tells him. "We're here to help you."

Garner says nothing.

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An officer is heard saying, "He's breathing, he has a pulse." The EMS worker responds, "Yeah, yeah, yeah."

Nearly six minutes into the video, police and emergency responders roll Garner on his back.

Before Garner is put in the ambulance, the person shooting video asks why Garner never received CPR.

"'Cause he's breathing," an officer responds. "He's breathing?" the person says.

As Garner is taken away, the camera turns to Officer Daniel Pantaleo, who put the Staten Island father in a chokehold. A grand jury decided Wednesday not to charge him in Garner's death.

The video raises questions about whether the police and first responders tried hard enough to try and save Garner.

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A medical examiner called Garner's death a homicide and said he died from the chokehold and "the compression of his chest and prone positioning during physical restraint by police."

An official from the police union disputes those findings and said officers were correct in turning Garner on his side and immediately calling an ambulance for help.

An email request to the NYPD regarding police emergency training went unanswered.

CBS News called the union president for EMTs and paramedics, Israel Miranda, who said that based on the video, more should have been done.

"There was a lack of initial intervention," Miranda said. "They were not aggressive. If they're not breathing, assist with their ventilation. This is something that is ingrained in your training."

The four EMS workers who responded to Garner are not with the New York City Fire Department's union. Two are back to work while the other two remain suspended.

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