--- title: Sens. Gillibrand, Schumer Want Federal Investigation in Garner Case description: Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand are calling for more inquiry into the death of Eric Garner canonical: https://time.com/3617080/federal-lawmakers-chokehold-death-nypd-eric-garner/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-12-03T22:17:23.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T02:33:25.392Z article:section: Politics og:title: Sens. Gillibrand, Schumer Want Federal Investigation in Garner Case og:description: Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand are calling for more inquiry into the death of Eric Garner og:url: https://time.com/3617080/federal-lawmakers-chokehold-death-nypd-eric-garner/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta6552b43e9ac6159/69869ca9e8524b31f4603fd5/eric-garner-police-brutality-ramsey-orta.jpg?branch=production&width=1440&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Eric Garner Police Brutality Death og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Sens. Gillibrand, Schumer Want Federal Investigation in Garner Case twitter:description: Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand are calling for more inquiry into the death of Eric Garner twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta6552b43e9ac6159/69869ca9e8524b31f4603fd5/eric-garner-police-brutality-ramsey-orta.jpg?branch=production&width=1440&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Lawmakers Call for Federal Investigation Into Chokehold Death by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Dec 3, 2014 10:17 PM UTC  Ramsey Orta by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Dec 3, 2014 10:17 PM UTC Lawmakers called for a Department of Justice investigation into the July death of Eric Garner, following a grand jury’s decision Wednesday not to indict the New York police officer who put the Staten Island father of six into a chokehold that killed him. New York Senator Chuck Schumer said on Twitter that the DOJ “must launch a federal investigation into Eric Garner’s death as soon as possible.” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, also representing New York, called Garner’s death a “tragedy that demands accountability.” “Nobody unarmed should die on a New York City street corner for suspected low-level offenses,” Gillibrand’s statement reads. “I’m shocked by this grand jury decision, and will be calling on the Department of Justice to investigate.” Garner’s family and the Rev. Al Sharpton met in August with Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch—who was tapped in November as President Obama’s top pick to replace Eric Holder as Attorney General—to ask that the case be formally investigated by the Federal government. President Obama quickly commented on the situation before a planned address at the White House Tribal Nations Conference in Washington. “As I said when I met with folks from Ferguson, this is an issue that we’ve been dealing with for too long and it’s time for us to make more progress than we’ve made,” Obama said. “This is American problem, not just a black problem.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3617080/federal-lawmakers-chokehold-death-nypd-eric-garner/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3617080/federal-lawmakers-chokehold-death-nypd-eric-garner/"},"headline":"Lawmakers Call for Federal Investigation Into Chokehold Death","datePublished":"2014-12-03T22:17:23.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T02:33:25.392Z","description":"Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand are calling for more inquiry into the death of Eric Garner","url":"https://time.com/3617080/federal-lawmakers-chokehold-death-nypd-eric-garner/","keywords":["justice"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta6552b43e9ac6159/69869ca9e8524b31f4603fd5/eric-garner-police-brutality-ramsey-orta.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta6552b43e9ac6159/69869ca9e8524b31f4603fd5/eric-garner-police-brutality-ramsey-orta.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Eric Garner Police Brutality Death","caption":"Eric Garner Police Brutality Death","creditText":"Ramsey Orta","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/justice/","name":"justice"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3617080/federal-lawmakers-chokehold-death-nypd-eric-garner/","name":"Lawmakers Call for Federal Investigation Into Chokehold Death"}}]}] ```