Madman Staten Island bomber arrested after leaving three devices around borough: authorities The 54-year-old suspect was fueled by jealousy - his target was a man who lived on his block and recently married a woman the suspect liked, authorities said. 
 
 The madman bomber responsible for leaving three inert devices on Staten Island was taken into custody Wednesday — and police believe he may have been fueled by jealousy, authorities said. 
 
 Cops took the 54-year-old suspect in for questioning at his job in Manhattan. 
 
 The bomber was lovestruck by a woman, 32, who lived nearby and had just gotten married this past Saturday - the day of the final incident — and the suspect was targeting the woman’s beau, officials said. 
 
 All three know each other and live on the same block. 
 
 The note left behind at each device had the 35-year-old target’s name and address. 
 
 The suspect, whose name was not released, is being questioned at the 121st Precinct stationhouse. Charges are pending. 
 
 "He, we believe, is the person responsible for the 3 incidents on Staten Island,” said Deputy Commissioner John McCarthy, the NYPD’s top spokesman. 
 
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 The suspect’s spree had triggered an all-out manhunt by the NYPD, sources said Wednesday. 
 
 A task force of about 10 investigators has been put together to arrest the person who left three bombs in residential areas around the borough beginning on Sept. 2, police sources said. 
 
 The homemade devices — propane cylinders duct taped to vials filled with gasoline attached to a container of nails and screws — were found inside laptop bags with wires sticking out of them, officials said. 
 
 At least one of the devices had a nine-volt battery attached to it, police sources said. Another came with a clock, but the clock was not wired to the device. 
 
 RELATED: NYPD EVACUATES STATEN ISLAND BLOCK AFTER FAKE BOMB FIND 
 
 All three of the bombs had a threatening note in Spanish attached to them, a source said. 
 
 Cops are concerned because if the devices were rigged properly, they could have exploded. 
 
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 “Whenever you have propane and gas and you can light it, you will have some sort of explosion that will cause damage,” a police source said. 
 
 Cops evacuated nine homes on Cornell St. near Decker Ave. in Elm Park on Sept. 2 after the first fake bomb was discovered. 
 
 Members of the NYPD Bomb Squad deployed a robot to open the laptop bag and inspect the would-be bomb, which didn’t contain an explosive. 
 
 “Nothing like this has ever happened here,” Elm Park resident Nievas Pavia, 31, who lived near where the laptop bag was discovered, told the Daily News at the time. 
 
 “We were shocked and worried because we weren't told anything... just that we had to leave.” 
 
 The second device — the only one not found in a laptop case — was was found sitting next to a parked car on Brentwood Ave. near Henderson Ave. in Randall Manor, officials said. 
 
 A crew of sanitation workers accidentally picked up the third gadget — which was placed among some garbage bags —on Duncan Road near Silver Lake Park at 8 a.m. Saturday. 
 
 Nearby houses were evacuated as the NYPD bomb squad investigated. 
 
 Cops are asking anyone with information to contact Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential. ||||| UPDATE: The most recent version of this story can be found here. 
 
 
 
 STATEN ISLAND -- Police sources say they have a "person of interest" in custody in connection with a string of fake bombs planted across the Island this month -- a jealous ex-lover hoping to get the police to arrest his ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend. 
 
 
 
 Though no charges have been filed yet, investigators believe that "hoax devices" were left in Port Richmond, Randall Manor and Grymes Hill as part of a grudge between the two men, sources said. 
 
 At least one device had a note written in Spanish accompanying it, those sources said. 
 
 The most recent device, found in a computer bag on Saturday outside a home on Duncan Road in Grymes Hill, contained a propane container, with what looked like wires coming out, connected to another container of liquid, according to law enforcement sources. It wouldn't have exploded, those sources said. 
 
 Police found two similar devices earlier this month -- one on Sept. 12, in a backpack by a black Toyota on Brentwood Avenue in Randall Manor, the other on Sept. 2, in a suitcase on an uninhabited stretch of Barrett Avenue just behind the Forest Avenue Shoppers Town strip mall in Port Richmond. 
 
 The devices spurred the NYPD to form a task force over the weekend. 
 
 Police also responded to four separate false alarms involving discarded bags since the first device was found. 
 
 Police sources say that investigators don't believe terrorism to be a motive in the creation of the devices. ||||| (This story was originally published on July 18, 2014) 
 
 A 400-pound asthmatic Staten Island dad died Thursday after a cop put him in a chokehold and other officers appeared to slam his head against the sidewalk, video of the incident shows. 
 
 “I can’t breathe! I can’t breathe!” Eric Garner, 43, repeatedly screamed after at least five NYPD officers took him down in front of a Tompkinsville beauty supply store when he balked at being handcuffed. 
 
 Within moments Garner, a married father of six children with two grandchildren, stopped struggling and appeared to be unconscious as police called paramedics to the scene. An angry crowd gathered, some recording with smartphones. 
 
 “When I kissed my husband this morning, I never thought it would be for the last time,” Garner’s wife, Esaw, told the Daily News. 
 
 She got no details from police until after she had gone to the hospital to identify his body, she said. 
 
 “I saw him with his eyes wide open and I said, ‘Babe, don’t leave me, I need you.’ But he was already gone,” she said. 
 
 A family friend searching for her in the hospital ran into detectives from the NYPD’s Internal Affairs Division. The friend put them on the phone with her, the grieving widow said. 
 
 ERIC GARNER: A YEAR LATER 
 
 She spoke with a Detective Howard, who told her, “I’m sorry for your loss,” she said. He said his office was involved “because there is wrongdoing,” she said. 
 
 Police officials said Garner had a history of arrests for selling untaxed cigarettes. Cops said they observed him selling his wares Thursday on Bay St. and moved in for an arrest. 
 
 Within moments Garner, a married father of six children with two grandchildren, ceased struggling and appeared to become unconscious as police called paramedics to the scene. (New York Daily News) Within moments Garner, a married father of six children with two grandchildren, ceased struggling and appeared to become unconscious as police called paramedics to the scene. (New York Daily News) Within moments Garner, a married father of six children with two grandchildren, ceased struggling and appeared to become unconscious as police called paramedics to the scene. 
 
 An NYPD spokesman would only say the man “was being placed in custody, went into cardiac arrest and died” at Richmond University Medical Center. 
 
 But Esaw Garner and other family members said it was a trumped up claim. 
 
 “They’re covering their asses, he was breaking up a fight. They harassed and harassed my husband until they killed him,” she said. Garner’s family said he didn’t have any cigarettes on him or in his car at the time of his death. 
 
 She said she pleaded with police at the hospital to tell her what happened, but they brushed her off. 
 
 “They wouldn’t tell me anything,” she said. 
 
 An angry crowd gathered, some recording with smartphones. (Ken Murray/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS) 
 
 Officials confirmed that NYPD Internal Affairs officers launched an investigation Thursday night. 
 
 Records show Garner was due in court in October on three Staten Island cases, including charges of pot possession and possession or selling untaxed cigarettes. 
 
 Esaw Garner said her husband was unable to work because he suffered from a host of ailments, including chronic asthma, diabetes and sleep apnea. 
 
 Garner’s mother, Gwen Carr, 65, added, “I want justice.” 
 
 'When I kissed my husband this morning, I never thought it would be for the last time,' Garner’s wife, Esaw Garner, told the Daily News. Esaw Garner holds a photo of her late husband with sons Emery (left) and Eric. (Sam Costanza for New York Daily News) 
 
 Police said Garner was not armed. 
 
 The Staten Island resident was sitting in front of Bay Beauty on Bay St. and Victory Blvd. just before 5 p.m. when two plainclothes cops began questioning him about selling untaxed cigarettes, a video obtained by the Daily News shows. 
 
 Ramsey Orta, 22, shot the shocking footage. (Ken Murray/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS) 
 
 “I didn’t do s---!” the 6-foot-4 Garner, wearing a sweaty T-shirt and khaki shorts, told the officers from the 120th Precinct when they approached him. “I was just minding my own business. 
 
 “Every time you see me you want to mess with me. I’m tired of it. It stops today!” he yelled. 
 
 'He’s the nicest guy. I can’t believe what I saw. That’s no way to do an arrest,' said Douglas, 50, about Garner. Douglas would only give his first name. (acquired by: TOMAS E. GASTON) 
 
 Ramsey Orta, 22, who shot the video, tried to intervene, telling the cops his friend had just broken up a fight between three men and had not been selling cigarettes. 
 
 But when backup uniformed officers arrived, the cops moved in to cuff Garner, the video shows. 
 
 “Don’t touch me, please,” he said. 
 
 Friends of Eric Garner set up a memorial at the spot where he died. (Sam Costanza) The candle memorial reads 'BIG E.' (Sam Costanza) Eric Garner recently attended the circus with friends and family members. (Sam Costanza) Eric Garner and his wife Esaw Garner. (Sam Costanza) 
 
 When Garner refused orders to put his hands behind his back, one of the plainclothes cops, wearing a green T-shirt with a yellow No. 99 on the back, got behind him and put him in a chokehold, the footage shows. 
 
 A struggle ensued as three uniformed officers joined in on the arrest, knocking the man to the ground. 
 
 He screamed, “I can’t breathe!” six times before he went silent and paramedics were called. 
 
 “They jumped him and they were choking him. He was foaming at the mouth,” Orta told The News. “And that’s it, he was done. The cops were saying, ‘No, he’s OK, he’s OK.” He wasn’t OK.” 
 
 “They were choking him. He kept saying, ‘I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe! Get off of me, get off of me!’ and I didn’t hear any more talking after that,” said witness Valencia Griffin, 50, of Staten Island. “He died right there.” 
 
 Another witness, who would only give his first name, Douglas, said he’d known Garner for four years. 
 
 “He’s a very big man, very intimidating, but he’s just a big teddy bear,” said Douglas, 50. “He’s the nicest guy. I can’t believe what I saw. That’s no way to do an arrest.” 
 
 Eric Garner's family including (from left) son Eric, 18, daughter Erica, 24, daughter Emerald, 22, wife Esaw, 46, mother Gwen Carr, 65, and son Emery, 14, are mourning the loss of him. (Sam Costanza for New York Daily News) Eric Garner's sister, MTA bus operator Lisha Flagg, 38, wants justice for Eric Garner's death. (TOMAS E. GASTON) 
 
 At the video’s end, the cop who had choke-held Garner can be seen staring at the camera that was videotaping him. 
 
 “This had nothing to do with the fight, this had something to do with something else,” the cop said, and walked away. 
 
 A law enforcement source said the incident was troubling. 
 
 “A guy is dead in our custody. That is always a potential problem,” the source said. 
 
 With Patrick McCarron and Bill Hutchinson 
 
 UPDATE: The Staten Island district attorney is investigating the shocking death of a 400-pound asthmatic dad after a city cop placed him in a chokehold. 
 
 Eric Garner, 43, died Thursday after a sidewalk takedown by five NYPD officers making an arrest outside a Tompkinsville beauty parlor. 
 
 “My office is working along with the NYPD to do a complete and thorough investigation into the circumstances surrounding Mr. Garner's death,” said District Attorney Daniel M. Donovan Jr. in a Friday statement. 
 
 Click here to read Friday's full story 
 
 rparascandola@nydailynews.com 
 
 On a mobile device? Click here to watch the video. 
 
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– A 54-year-old man is accused of planting three inert bombs around Staten Island in order to frame the husband of a neighborhood woman he liked, reports the Staten Island Advance. Police say the man left his homemade devices in residential areas over the last month, reports the Daily News, which describes them as "propane cylinders duct taped to vials filled with gasoline attached to a container of nails and screws." As constructed, they apparently wouldn't have been able to explode, say police, though it's not clear whether that was by design or ignorance. The man was reportedly smitten with a 32-year-old woman in his neighborhood—the Advance says he was her ex-boyfriend—and apparently none too happy that she recently got married. With each device was an angry note that implicated her husband, says the Daily News. The suspect was being questioned this afternoon, and charges are pending. "He, we believe, is the person responsible for the three incidents on Staten Island,” says an NYPD spokesperson.