Angelique Negroni-Kearse watched helplessly as her husband died before her eyes in what felt like slow motion.
The Bronx widow, after viewing a police dashcam video of her gasping spouse’s final minutes alive last May, was horrified by his death and the callousness of the cops who refused to help him.
“It was the most horrendous thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” Negroni-Kearse told the Daily News on Wednesday. “To see death on his face — it was horrible.
“To see him die is just horrible. Pleading and begging for his life … just begging for his life, and the officers just ignored him.”
Andrew Kearse, 40, repeatedly asked for assistance as a Schenectady police officer turned a deaf ear to his pleas — even ignoring his announcement that “I can’t breathe.”
It was the same exact phrase used by police chokehold victim Eric Garner before his death in July 2014 on Staten Island.
“I want justice for Andrew and I want that cop to go to jail,” said Negroni-Kearse in explaining her decision. “You can hear my husband in distress. He was in the backseat, handuffed, gasping for air.”
The audio released by Negroni-Kearse includes 25 minutes where her husband was inside the police car with the arresting officers back on May 11, 2017.
Though he was clearly having trouble breathing, the arresting officers did nothing to assist the dying man.
“Please, please, sir,” Kearse says at one point as he struggles to catch his breath. “I can’t breathe! Please! Sir! Yo!”
Kearse — on parole for grand larceny at the time of his arrest — tried to flee on foot after cops pulled him over for driving erratically. He was taken back into custody.
As the suspect begged the arresting officers to get him help, one of the cops sarcastically made reference to Kearse’s decision to flee.
“Please, please … Officer!” the suspect shouts at one point.
“Is it hot?” one of the cops inquires. “You probably shouldn’t run next time.”
At another point on the Kearse audio, as the cops drove with the suspect in the back seat, the doomed man was heard pleading for assistance.
“Excuse me, sir?” asked Kearse.
“What?” the cop replied.
“Officer, officer, please,” the suspect continued.“Please what?” the cop responded.
“Come here,” Kearse begged.
What do you want?” the cop answered.
“Give me some air, I really can’t breathe, officer … officer,” said Kearse
In November, Kearse’s widow filed a notice of claim announcing her intention to file a $25 million lawsuit against the upstate police.
The court papers charged that Kearse, the father of nine children, died despite his “repeated and numerous complaints of difficulty breathing and dizziness.”
Emeh Achanga,the CEO of the Miss Petite Nigeria Brand is a lawyer turned blogger. She is very passionate about writing, with several publications and awards to her credit .She is currently working on publishing a collection of short stories which are basically a memoir about her exciting true experiences.
