During the disaster, he narrowly escaped death when a flying chunk of one of the jet's wings nearly hit him in the head.
Garcia's photograph of President George W. Bush surveying the damage from Hurricane Katrina in August 2005 from the high remove of Air Force One became a symbol of his administration's slow and detached reaction to the human suffering and wreckage below.
Garcia was charged with disorderly conduct and the police report claimed that he "threw himself to the ground, attempting to injure himself."
[4] On March 4, 2013, the Justice Department filed a statement of interest with the district court hearing the lawsuit, asserting its position that citizens have a First Amendment right to peacefully photograph law enforcement officers in the exercise of their duties, and urging the court to rule against a motion to dismiss filed by the defendants.
Mickey Osterreicher, General Counsel of the NPPA (National Press Photographer's Association) was instrumental in championing this case involving freelance photojournalist Mannie Garcia and both the Police of Montgomery County and Montgomery County.