The witness who shot cell phone video of Eric Garner being placed in a chokehold during his arrest says that the grand jurors who investigated his death “already had their minds made up” when he testified about what he saw, the New York Daily News reported Thursday.
“I feel like it wasn't fair at all,” the witness, Ramsey Orta, told the Daily News in an exclusive interview. “It wasn't fair from the start.”
Orta, 22, told the newspaper that when he testified on Sept. 1 before the grand jury investigating Garner’s death, he was prepared to spend hours being questioned. Instead, he said he found the grand jury distracted and disinterested in his testimony, which ended up taking only 10 minutes.
“When I went to the grand jury to speak on my behalf, nobody in the grand jury was even paying attention to what I had to say,” Orta said. “People were on their phones, people were talking. I feel like they didn't give (Garner) a fair grand jury."
The grand jury on Wednesday ended the criminal case against New York City police Officer Daniel Pantaleo, who placed Garner in the chokehold on July 17 during his arrest for selling unlicensed cigarettes, finding there was not enough evidence to go forward with criminal charges in connection with the death of Garner.
Click here to read the entire Daily News' interview with Orta.
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