The man who filmed a video of a New York City police officer apparently using a fatal chokehold on a suspect was arrested on gun charges Saturday night, an NYPD spokesman announced.
Ramsey Orta, 22, was arrested in Staten Island on a charge of criminal possession of a firearm, an NBC affiliate reports.
In the video that Orta filmed, Eric Garner, who was arrested for selling loose, untaxed cigarettes, can be heard saying, “I can’t breathe,” as officers wrestle him to the ground. A medical examiner ruled Friday that Garner’s death was a homicide and that the officer’s chokehold, a move prohibited by the NYPD, was a significant factor in it.
“I felt like they treated him wrong even after the fact that they had him contained,” Orta told TIME about Garner’s arrest.
Orta was carrying an unloaded semiautomatic weapon that was reported stolen in Michigan in 2007, police said. Orta is also in the hospital undergoing treatment for a medical condition.
[NBC]
